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Office: Grant Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness – coordinated through the Sheriff’s Office; Sheriff Steven McCain serves as Director, with Sergeant Suzanne Alford as Deputy Director; the parish maintains an all-hazard emergency operations plan coordinated with the school board, medical clinics, day cares, and nursing homes.
Sheriff: Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office – 205 Cypress Street, Colfax, LA 71417 | (318) 627-2035 or (318) 627-3261 | Fax (318) 627-3418; Sheriff Steven McCain, in office since 2012; 75 regular deputies plus 35 part-time deputies; maintains SWAT, Search and Rescue, and K-9 units. Grant Parish Jail – (318) 627-3724 | Fax (318) 627-9366.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: LA-8 and US-71 serve Colfax, the parish seat, on the Red River in Central Louisiana.
Notes: Grant Parish is named for President Ulysses S. Grant. Colfax was founded in 1869.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Grant Parish Courthouse – Colfax, LA.
Notes: Colfax is the site of one of the most significant and tragic events of the Reconstruction era: the Colfax Massacre of April 13, 1873, in which a mob of armed white Louisianans, including former Confederate soldiers, overwhelmed a group of Black freedmen and Republican state militia occupying the Grant Parish courthouse following a disputed 1872 gubernatorial election. The great majority of the estimated 62 to over 150 Black victims were killed after surrendering. The subsequent 1876 Supreme Court case United States v. Cruikshank, which arose from federal prosecutions related to the massacre, significantly narrowed federal authority to enforce civil rights protections against private violence – a ruling historians widely regard as a major setback for Reconstruction-era civil rights enforcement and a contributing factor to the rise of Jim Crow-era violence and disenfranchisement across the South.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Grant Parish Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/grant-parish.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Grant Parish Library (main branch, Colfax) – confirm current address/phone via the parish library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Red River waterfront in Colfax and the Kisatchie National Forest lands within the parish are notable local features.
Notes: The Colfax Massacre is a historically significant and sobering fact essential to understanding this parish’s place in American Reconstruction-era history.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Grant Parish Assessor’s Office – 200 Main Street, Colfax, LA 71417 | (318) 627-5471 | Email: [email protected].
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office Animal Control – 485 Richardson Drive, Colfax, LA 71417 | (318) 627-3724 or (318) 321-0424 | Email: [email protected]; operated under the Sheriff’s Office, focused on enforcing animal-protection laws, sheltering and reuniting strays, and promoting responsible pet ownership; runs an active foster program with 24/7 support for volunteers, and has partnered with Best Friends Animal Society on adoption transport events.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Grant Parish Police Jury Public Works – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/grant-parish.
NOTES: Grant Parish is the fourth parish in the fourth batch of the Louisiana v2 A+ sourced standard. The Colfax Massacre is a historically significant and sobering fact essential to understanding this parish’s place in American Reconstruction-era history. 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 Grant Parish County
Grant Parish is the site of the Colfax Massacre – the Easter Sunday 1873 killing of 62-153 Black men by white supremacists was the deadliest act of racial violence in Reconstruction America, and the resulting Supreme Court case dismantled federal civil rights protections for nearly a century.
Colfax (the parish seat, population ~1,500) carries this history while serving the parish’s timber and agricultural communities in the Kisatchie hills.
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Grant Parish Assessor at 200 Main Street, Suite 5, Colfax, LA 71417, phone 318-627-3261. LA residential assessed at 10% of fair market value; $75,000 homestead exemption.
Courts & Legal
Grant Parish Clerk of Court at 200 Main Street, Colfax, LA 71417, phone 318-627-3246, 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)
200 Main St., Colfax, LA 71417
(318) 627-3246
Genealogy
Parish-level record sources
Grant Parish Clerk of Court (succession/estate case files – see Succession section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Grant 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
Grant Parish 35th Judicial District Court, Clerk of Court 200 Main Street (P.O. Box 263), Colfax, LA 71417 (318) 627-3246 Grant Parish is in central Louisiana, seated in Colfax.
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
200 Main St., Colfax, LA 71417
(318) 627-2264
SHERIFF / TAX COLLECTOR
200 Main St., Colfax, LA 71417
(318) 627-2264
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (Elections)
200 Main St., Colfax, LA 71417
(318) 627-3246
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Office: Grant Parish Health Unit – confirm current contact via Louisiana Department of Health regional office listings.
Editorial independence: CountyOffices maintains strict editorial independence from our affiliate partners. Our content is researched from official government sources. Affiliate relationships do not influence our recommendations or the information we publish.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
Population: 22,000
Area: 661 sq mi
Established: 1869
Public Records
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