West Carroll Parish, Louisiana

West Carroll Parish, Louisiana
West Carroll Parish Courthouse in Oak Grove
Location in the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location in the U.S.
Founded	March 26, 1877
Named for	Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Seat	Oak Grove, West Carroll Parish
Largest town	Oak Grove, West Carroll Parish
Area
• Total	361 sq mi (935 km2)
• Land	360 sq mi (932 km2)
• Water	0.9 sq mi (2 km2), 0.3%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	11,293
• Density	32/sq mi (12/km²)
Congressional district	5th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5

West Carroll Parish (French: Paroisse de Carroll Ouest) is a parish located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 11,604. The parish seat is Oak Grove. The parish was founded in 1877.

The original Carroll Parish, before it was divided into "West" and "East" segments, was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence and the last surviving signer of the document.

West Carroll Parish has a long history of inhabitants who predated the formation of the United States, possibly by thousands of years. For a complete history of West Carroll Parish, see Between the Rivers by Florence McKoin, Claitor’s Publishing Company of Baton Rouge.

On the south end of West Carroll Parish is Poverty Point, a nearly square-mile complex of ancient major earthwork semi-circles and radiating lanes, plus additional platform mounds. This is one of the largest Native American earthworks in North America. Archeologists have determined that the site was built in the Late Archaic period beginning about 1500 BCE, and it was the central trading grounds for the Poverty Point culture, people who called the lower Mississippi River Valley home. It has been referred to as the New York City of more than two millennia ago. Artifacts show trading reached to present-day Georgia and Great Lakes states such as Wisconsin. Later historic tribes in the area included the Choctaw and Chickasaw.