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Office: Red River Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness – coordinated with the Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff: Red River Parish Sheriff’s Office – 615 East Carroll Street, Coushatta, LA 71019 (P.O. Box 375) | (318) 932-4221 or (318) 932-5753 | Fax (318) 932-6651; Sheriff Glen T. Edwards, in office since 2012, a Northeast Louisiana University graduate; 67 regular deputies plus 5 part-time deputies. Red River Parish Jail – same address | (318) 932-5753 | Fax (318) 932-6651; inmate commissary/phone accounts (318) 746-1114.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-71 serves Coushatta, the parish seat, on the east bank of the Red River, roughly 45 miles south of Shreveport in Northwest Louisiana. Red River Parish, established March 2, 1871, is one of Louisiana’s smaller parishes at 388.6 square miles.
Notes: Red River Parish is named for the Red River, which runs the parish’s entire length.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Red River Parish Courthouse – Coushatta, LA.
Notes: The famous “Great Raft” – a roughly 160-180-mile natural logjam that made the upper Red River completely impassable for centuries – began just above Coushatta Bayou in what is now Red River Parish. Legendary steamboat captain and engineer Henry Miller Shreve (namesake of Shreveport) began his historic effort to clear the logjam here in the early 1830s using specially designed “snag boats” of his own invention, opening the river to navigation and settlement across Northwest Louisiana and East Texas – a project not fully completed until the 1870s, when dynamite became available.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Red River Parish Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/red-river-parish.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Red River Parish Library (main branch, Coushatta) – confirm current address/phone via the parish library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Red River itself, historically significant as the starting point of the Great Raft clearing project, is the parish’s defining natural feature.
Notes: The genuine Great Raft/Henry Shreve connection is one of the most consequential 19th-century engineering-history facts covered anywhere in this project – it directly enabled the founding of Shreveport and the settlement of the entire upper Red River Valley.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Red River Parish Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/red-river-parish.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
⚠️ Sourcing is inconsistent for this parish. A 2018 local news report stated Red River Parish has no formal animal control service or parish-run shelter, with Natchitoches Hope for Paws informally assisting with strays and the Sheriff’s Office posting found-animal notices directly. Some directories list a “Red River Humane Society” at 905 Maple Street, Coushatta, LA 71019 | (318) 339-9643, and a “Red River Shelter” at 2115 Abney St, Coushatta – but current operating status could not be confirmed. Contact the Sheriff’s Office at (318) 932-4221 for the most current animal-related guidance, and confirm any shelter’s active status directly before visiting.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Red River Parish Police Jury Public Works – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/red-river-parish.
NOTES: Red River Parish is the fifth parish in the seventh batch of the Louisiana v2 A+ sourced standard. The genuine Great Raft/Henry Shreve connection is one of the most consequential 19th-century engineering-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 Red River Parish County
Red River Parish is northwest Louisiana’s Red River valley agricultural parish – the red sediment river that gives the parish its name and the rural timber and agricultural landscape define a community where Coushatta serves the surrounding parishes between Shreveport and Natchitoches.
Coushatta (the parish seat, population ~2,000) is Red River Parish’s governmental hub on US 71, a northwest Louisiana Red River community whose agricultural economy and courthouse anchor its identity.
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Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Red River Parish Assessor at 615 E. Carroll Street, Coushatta, LA 71019, phone 318-932-4922. LA assessed at 10% of fair market value.
Courts & Legal
Red River Parish District Court at 615 E. Carroll Street, Coushatta, LA 71019, phone 318-932-6741, 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)
615 E. Carroll St., Coushatta, LA 71019
(318) 932-6741
Genealogy
Parish-level record sources
Red River Parish Clerk of Court (succession/estate case files – see Succession section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Red River 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
Red River Parish 39th Judicial District Court, Clerk of Court 615 East Carroll Street (P.O. Box 485), Coushatta, LA 71019 (318) 932-6741 Red River Parish is in northwestern Louisiana, seated in Coushatta.
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
615 E. Carroll St., Coushatta, LA 71019
(318) 932-4122
SHERIFF / TAX COLLECTOR
615 E. Carroll St., Coushatta, LA 71019
(318) 932-4122
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (Elections)
615 E. Carroll St., Coushatta, LA 71019
(318) 932-4122
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Office: Red River 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: 8,500
Area: 393 sq mi
Established: 1871
Public Records
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