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Office: East Carroll Parish Emergency Preparedness – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/east-carroll-parish; East Carroll 911 – [email protected].
Sheriff: East Carroll Parish Sheriff’s Office – 301/400 First Street, Lake Providence, LA 71254 | (318) 559-2800 or (318) 559-2071 | Fax (318) 559-2567; Sheriff Wydette Williams, in office since 2012; 178 regular deputies plus 1 part-time deputy. East Carroll Parish Detention Center – 219 Hollybrook Road, Lake Providence, LA | (318) 559-5980 | Fax (318) 559-5983.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-65 and LA-2 serve Lake Providence, the parish seat, in the Mississippi Delta in the far northeast corner of Louisiana.
Notes: East Carroll Parish, established in 1877 (split from the original Carroll Parish), spans roughly 442 square miles and remains heavily agricultural, with about 74% of its land devoted to farming – a legacy of its antebellum cotton-plantation economy.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: East Carroll Parish Courthouse – Lake Providence, LA.
Notes: East Carroll Parish is genuinely the starting point of President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous 1907 black bear hunt – a follow-up to his more widely known 1902 Mississippi hunt (the origin of the “Teddy bear”). In October 1907, Roosevelt’s special train stopped at Lake Providence before continuing to a siding in southern East Carroll Parish (a spot later renamed “Roosevelt” in his honor), where the president and a party that included future Louisiana Governor John M. Parker and Tabasco heir John Avery McIlhenny rode into the swamp to hunt along the Tensas River. When bears proved elusive, the camp relocated to Bear Lake in neighboring Madison Parish, where Roosevelt eventually took a bear; he later wrote about the trip for Scribner’s Magazine in an article titled “In the Louisiana Canebrakes.” Local place names – Roosevelt, Bear Lake, and Teddy Roosevelt Lane – still commemorate the visit.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: East Carroll Parish Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/east-carroll-parish.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
East Carroll Parish Library – confirm current address/phone via the parish library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Lake Providence itself (the town’s namesake oxbow lake), the Bear Lake/Tensas River area associated with Roosevelt’s 1907 hunt, and the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge (which some residents unsuccessfully sought to rename for Roosevelt in 2004) are the parish’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine Theodore Roosevelt bear-hunt connection is one of the more distinctive presidential-history facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: East Carroll Parish Assessor’s Office – 400 1st St #10, Lake Providence, LA 71254 | (318) 559-2851.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
⚠️ As of a 2020 Louisiana Legislative Auditor report, East Carroll Parish was among 11 Louisiana parishes without a public animal control shelter, citing lack of funding. Animal-related matters are handled through the Sheriff’s Office – (318) 559-2800. Confirm current arrangements directly, as this is a historically under-resourced area for animal services; the statewide Humane Society of Louisiana hotline, (888) 648-6263, is available for abuse/neglect reports if local response is unavailable.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: East Carroll Parish Police Jury Public Works – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/east-carroll-parish.
NOTES: East Carroll Parish is the sixth and final parish in the third batch of the Louisiana v2 A+ sourced standard. The genuine Theodore Roosevelt bear-hunt connection is one of the more distinctive presidential-history facts covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About East Carroll Parish County
East Carroll Parish is Louisiana’s northernmost and Grant’s winter campaign parish – the Civil War canal project that occupied Grant’s army in the Lake Providence oxbow while planning the Vicksburg campaign and the flat Delta cotton landscape define a parish where Lake Providence serves the surrounding agricultural communities near Mississippi and Arkansas.
Lake Providence (the parish seat, population ~4,000) is East Carroll Parish’s governmental hub on US 65, a northeast Louisiana Delta community whose Civil War heritage, Lake Providence oxbow, and cotton farming economy anchor its identity.
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East Carroll Parish Assessor at 400 First Street, Lake Providence, LA 71254, phone 318-559-2850. LA assessed at 10% of fair market value.
Courts & Legal
East Carroll Parish District Court at 400 First Street, Lake Providence, LA 71254, phone 318-559-2399, handles successions.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURT (Records, Vital Records, Mortgages)
400 First St., Lake Providence, LA 71254
(318) 559-2399
Genealogy
Parish-level record sources
East Carroll Parish Clerk of Court (succession/estate case files – see Succession section above).
Local societies
No dedicated East Carroll Parish genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
A NOTE ON LOUISIANA LAW: Louisiana is the only U.S. state built on a civil-law tradition (rooted in the Napoleonic Code) rather than English common law. Louisiana doesn’t use the word “probate” – the equivalent process is called a “succession,” and its 64 parishes are the equivalent of counties elsewhere. Community property and separate property rules also work differently here than in common-law states, which can affect what’s actually part of the succession.
Where to go
East Carroll Parish 6th Judicial District Court, Clerk of Court 400 First Street, Suite 3, Lake Providence, LA 71254 (318) 559-2399 East Carroll Parish is in northeastern Louisiana on the Mississippi River, seated in Lake Providence.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Small Succession Affidavit – under La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 3421 et seq., available for estates with a gross value of $125,000 or less at the date of death (or of any value if the decedent has been dead more than 20 years). No court proceeding is required. At least two people must sign – typically the surviving spouse (if any) plus one or more heirs, sworn before a notary. If the estate includes immovable property (real estate), the affidavit can’t be recorded until 90 days after the date of death, and it must be recorded with the Clerk of Court/Recorder in every parish where the decedent owned real estate.
Succession Without Administration (“simple possession”) – used when there are no debts to pay and all heirs agree; commonly resolved in 30 to 90 days via a Petition for Possession.
Administered Succession – required when a court-appointed succession representative needs to inventory assets and pay debts before distribution; typically takes 3 to 9 months, longer if contested.
Important: for anything beyond a small succession affidavit, Louisiana courts generally require a licensed Louisiana attorney to represent the succession – self-representation and generic online forms are not accepted the way they are in many other states.
Step 2: filing a regular succession
File a Petition for Possession (simple cases) or a Petition for Administration (if a representative and formal administration are needed) in the district court of the parish where the decedent was domiciled at death.
The court admits any will and, where needed, appoints an executor (testate) or administrator (intestate), issuing Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
In an administered succession, the representative prepares a sworn descriptive list of assets, pays valid debts, and accounts to the court.
The court issues a Judgment of Possession, which must then be recorded in the parish conveyance/land records and with the parish tax assessor to clear title.
What it costs
Filing fees vary by parish and case type; publication costs apply when legal notices are required.
A full administered succession typically requires attorney representation – flat fees for straightforward matters often run in the low thousands of dollars, more if contested or complex.
A small succession affidavit is far less expensive and, when no real estate is involved, can often be handled without an attorney – though even small errors can cause a bank, title company, or the Louisiana OMV to reject the affidavit.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
400 First St., Lake Providence, LA 71254
(318) 559-2256
SHERIFF / TAX COLLECTOR
400 First St., Lake Providence, LA 71254
(318) 559-2256
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (Elections)
400 First St., Lake Providence, LA 71254
(318) 559-2256
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Office: East Carroll Parish Health Unit – confirm current contact via Louisiana Department of Health regional office listings.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
Population: 6,500
Area: 424 sq mi
Established: 1832
Public Records
TruthFinder
Search public records for East Carroll Parish County residents.
