Tensas Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States, in the northeastern corner of the state along the Mississippi River, which forms its entire eastern border. It had a population of 4,147 at the 2020 census — the smallest of any parish in Louisiana — and covers 641 square miles (1,660 km2), of which 603 square miles are land and 38 square miles are water, centred near 32°00′N 91°20′W.<\/p>\n
St. Joseph is the parish seat and its postal code is 71366. The parish has two towns, one village, and a scatter of small unincorporated communities and historic Mississippi River landings; it sits in the Central time zone.<\/p>\n
Tensas Parish’s population is spread across three incorporated municipalities and a long list of unincorporated hamlets and river landings, many dating to the parish’s antebellum cotton-plantation era. “CDP” below denotes a Census Designated Place; “Unincorp.” covers rural communities and named river landings with no incorporated government and, in most cases, no separately reported census population.<\/p>\n
| Place<\/th>\n | Type<\/th>\n | Pop.<\/th>\n | ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Joseph<\/td>\n | Town · seat<\/td>\n | 831<\/td>\n | 71366<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Newellton<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | 886<\/td>\n | 71357<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Waterproof<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 541<\/td>\n | 71375<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Alphenia Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Anchor Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Ashland<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Aubrey<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Avondale<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Azucena<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Balmoral<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Barcelona<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Chamblee<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cooter Point<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cooters Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Crescent Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Crimea<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cross Keys<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Dearborn<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Denhart<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Denmark Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Eltringham Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Ferry Newlight Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Glade Bayou Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Goldman<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Goldman Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Gretna Green<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Hedgeland<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Helena<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Highland<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Holly Ridge<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Hopewell Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Justina<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Kirks Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Lake Bruin<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Locust Ridge<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Martins Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Maryland<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Mayflower<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| New Quarters<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Newlight<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Notnac<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Oak Dale Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Olympic Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Osceola<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Pecan Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Remolina Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Richland<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Saint John<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Saranac<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Shady Grove<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Somerset<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Tensas Bluff<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Tensas Bluff Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Troy<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Westwood<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Wildcat<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Wilsonia<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Young Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Yucatan Landing<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n Two entries on the old list duplicated a single place under slightly different names and have been merged here: “Tensas” (a redundant repeat of the parish name itself) was dropped, and “Cooter Point” and “Cooters Landing” are kept as the separate, genuinely distinct Mississippi River landings that local maps show them to be.<\/p>\n ZIP Codes<\/h2>\nThe parish’s many unincorporated landings and rural communities have no ZIP code of their own and are served by the nearest of these three post offices.<\/p>\n Geography<\/h2>\nTensas Parish lies on the alluvial floodplain of the Mississippi River, which runs the full length of its eastern boundary and separates it from Mississippi. The terrain is flat delta land, historically cleared for cotton plantations and now given over largely to row-crop farming, along with Lake Bruin, a horseshoe-shaped oxbow lake formed by a former channel of the river and now a state park. Tensas Parish borders Madison Parish<\/a> to the north, Concordia Parish<\/a> to the south, and Franklin Parish<\/a> and Catahoula Parish<\/a> to the west; across the Mississippi River to the east lie Warren, Claiborne, Jefferson and Adams counties in Mississippi.<\/p>\n Tensas Parish had 4,147 residents at the 2020 census, the fewest of any of Louisiana’s 64 parishes, and a density of roughly 6.9 people per square mile of land — among the lowest in the state. Newellton (886) and St. Joseph (831) are its two largest communities. The parish’s median household income runs well below the Louisiana median of $58,229, reflecting an economy still centred on agricultural wages in one of the state’s poorest rural parishes.<\/p>\n Agriculture drives the parish economy, with cotton historically dominant and soybeans, corn and farmed catfish ponds now common on the Mississippi River floodplain. Lake Bruin State Park, on the oxbow lake northeast of St. Joseph, draws fishing and camping visitors and is one of the parish’s few tourism draws. Parish government, the public school system, and a handful of agricultural-supply businesses are among the largest employers in a parish with very little industry outside farming.<\/p>\n Tensas Parish was created on March 17, 1843, from parts of Concordia Parish, and takes its name from the Taensa people, an indigenous group who once inhabited the region before European settlement. St. Joseph developed from an early river landing known as Densmore’s Landing, later laid out in 1843 around a New England-style village green, an unusual plan for the Deep South. The parish’s plantation economy relied heavily on enslaved labor before the Civil War, and its Reconstruction era saw prolonged and violent conflict over Black political participation. In 1879 the James-Younger gang crossed the Mississippi River into the parish and hid briefly near St. Joseph before being tracked down by a posse.<\/p>\n U.S. Highway 65 runs north–south through the parish along the Mississippi River, connecting St. Joseph and Newellton, and Louisiana Highway 4 crosses it east–west.<\/p>\n The nearest commercial airport is Monroe Regional Airport, roughly 75 miles to the west.<\/p>\n Where is Tensas Parish?<\/strong> What is the population of Tensas Parish?<\/strong> How big is Tensas Parish?<\/strong> What is the Tensas Parish seat?<\/strong> How many towns are in Tensas Parish?<\/strong> |