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West Carroll parish is located in the northeast corner of Louisiana. Carroll Parish was carved out of Ouachita Parish in 1832. Carroll Parish was named in honor of Charles Carroll the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.Carroll Parish divided into East Carroll and West Carroll in 1877. The parish consists of five incorporated towns, Kilbourne, Oak Grove, Forrest, Pioneer, and Epps. Oak Grove is the parish seat.
West Carroll Parish encompasses 361 square miles, with which 360 square miles of land and 0.9 miles of water. Primary land use is agriculture and forestry. Agricultural crops are produced on 84,768 acres: forestland covers the remaining acreage.
The Boeuf River borders West Carroll on the east and by Bayou Macon on the west, these two bodies of water are used mainly for irrigation and drainage. The predominant terrain feature of West Carroll Parish is the Macon Ridge which runs north south through the parish. The Macon Ridge extends approximately 100 miles from eastern Arkansas southward into Louisiana. The Macon Ridge forms a terrace situated between the Mississippi River Valley to the east and the Arkansas and Ouachita River Valleys to the west. The general north to south pattern of Macon Ridge resulted from floodwaters of melting Midwestern glaciers depositing sand and silt forming the ridge. About 12,000-14,000 years ago, soils blown by the wind covered Macon Ridge adding 15 feet to its surface. The glacial out wash and windblown soils make up the backbone of the diverse agriculture crops in the parish.
West Carroll Parish is home to Louisiana’s only World Heritage Site, Poverty Point National Monument. Poverty Point was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in January 2013. Poverty Point National Monument is a prehistoric earthworks of the Poverty Point culture.Poverty Point National Monument is situated on the eastern edge of Macon Ridge, near the town of Epps. Poverty Point comprises several earthworks and mounds built between 1650 and 700 BC, during the archaic period in North America by a group of Native Americans of the Poverty Point culture.
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture