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Office: Tensas Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness – coordinated with the Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff: Tensas Parish Sheriff’s Office – 212 Hancock Street, Suite B, St. Joseph, LA 71366 | (318) 766-3499 | Fax (318) 766-3498; Sheriff Robert L. “Rob” Rushing, in office since 2024; 38 regular deputies. Tensas Parish Detention Center – 8606 Highway 65, Waterproof, LA | (318) 749-5810 | Fax (318) 766-4291.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-65 serves St. Joseph, the parish seat, along the Mississippi River in Northeast Louisiana. Tensas Parish, established March 17, 1843, is Louisiana’s least populated parish (roughly 3,700-4,100 residents).
Notes: Tensas Parish is named for the Taensa Native American people who inhabited the region.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Tensas Parish Courthouse – St. Joseph, LA; historic downtown St. Joseph is a rare Deep South example of a town planned around a New England-style village green, and its historic district is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Notes: Tensas Parish was historically a major cotton-plantation economy, at one point second only to Carroll Parish (now East/West Carroll) in Louisiana cotton production; Confederate authorities burned thousands of bales of stored cotton here in 1862 to keep it from advancing Union forces. Near Newellton, the restored Winter Quarters Plantation/State Historic Site marks where Union General Ulysses S. Grant and his troops camped during the winter of 1862-1863 before launching the campaign that led to the Siege of Vicksburg. Tensas Parish also has a documented, sobering civil-rights history: it was reportedly the last parish in Louisiana where African American residents were able to register to vote, with essentially no Black voter registration prior to the 1965 Voting Rights Act – after which registration and the parish’s politics changed substantially.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Tensas Parish Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/tensas-parish.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Tensas Parish Public Library & Museum – built in 1858; the ground floor houses the library while the main floor is home to the Plantation Museum.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Lake Bruin State Park (an oxbow lake near St. Joseph, named for early plantation owner Peter Bryan Bruin), Winter Quarters State Historic Site near Newellton, and the Ancient Mounds Trail (Tensas Parish mounds include Mayflower, Sundown, Balmoral, Ghost Site, Shackleford, Flowery, and Mound Plantation) are the parish’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine Winter Quarters/Grant connection and the parish’s distinctive village-green town plan are notable historical facts covered in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Tensas Parish Assessor’s Office – 201 Hancock St, St Joseph, LA 71366 | (318) 766-3501.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
⚠️ No dedicated Tensas Parish animal control phone number or shelter was confirmed in current sourcing – as Louisiana’s least populated parish, formal animal services do not appear to be established at the parish level. Direct animal-related inquiries to the Sheriff’s Office at (318) 766-3499 pending confirmation of current arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Tensas Parish Police Jury Public Works – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/tensas-parish.
NOTES: Tensas Parish is the sixth and final parish in the ninth batch of the Louisiana v2 A+ sourced standard. The genuine Winter Quarters/Grant connection and the parish’s distinctive village-green town plan are notable historical facts covered 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 Tensas Parish County
Tensas Parish is one of Louisiana’s emptiest and most economically challenged parishes – Lake Bruin’s beautiful oxbow waters attract bass fishermen while the surrounding delta communities navigate the persistent poverty of the Deep South Mississippi River bottomlands.
St. Joseph (the parish seat, population ~1,000) serves Tensas Parish’s shrinking agricultural communities near the Mississippi border.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Tensas Parish Assessor at 201 Courthouse Square, St. Joseph, LA 71366, phone 318-766-3921. LA residential assessed at 10% of fair market value; $75,000 homestead exemption.
Courts & Legal
Tensas Parish Clerk of Court at 201 Courthouse Square, St. Joseph, LA 71366, phone 318-766-3921, 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)
210 Courthouse Square, St. Joseph, LA 71366
(318) 766-3921
Genealogy
Parish-level record sources
Tensas Parish Clerk of Court (succession/estate case files – see Succession section above), which holds original records dating back to 1843, since microfilmed for preservation.
The 1905 Tensas Parish Courthouse and the St. Joseph Historic District, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are significant local landmarks.
Local societies
No dedicated Tensas 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
Tensas Parish 6th Judicial District Court, Clerk of Court 201 Hancock Street (P.O. Box 78), St. Joseph, LA 71366 (318) 766-3921 Tensas Parish is on the Mississippi River in northeastern Louisiana’s delta cotton country, seated in St. Joseph. The 1905 Tensas Parish Courthouse and the surrounding St. Joseph Historic District are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Clerk of Court’s office holds original records dating back to 1843.
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
210 Courthouse Square, St. Joseph, LA 71366
(318) 766-3535
SHERIFF / TAX COLLECTOR
210 Courthouse Square, St. Joseph, LA 71366
(318) 766-3535
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (Elections)
210 Courthouse Square, St. Joseph, LA 71366
(318) 766-3921
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Tensas Parish Health Unit
(318) 766-3553
LA DCFS — Northeast Region
(318) 362-3263
LA Medicaid
(888) 342-6207
Tensas Community Medical Center
(318) 766-area (limited local care; residents rely on Vicksburg, MS or Monroe, LA)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Tensas Parish Health Unit – 1115 Levee Street, St. Joseph, LA 71366 | (318) 766-3515 | Fax (318) 766-9090.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
Population: 4,500
Area: 637 sq mi
Established: 1843
Public Records
TruthFinder
Search public records for Tensas Parish County residents.
