Bienville

Formed March 14, 1848 (46^th parish)

Bienville Parish (12,989), Arcadia (2,747)

The tan brick Modern courthouse sits on a hill in the southern part of Arcadia.  It features two-story tall brick columns at the front entrance.  It was built in 1953 at the corner of Locust and Courthouse.  Louisiana State Highway 9 is two blocks east of the site.  Sparta was the first parish seat until 1893 when the courthouse was moved to Arcadia where the previous courthouse was built in 1895.  Bienville Parish was formed on March 14, 1848 from the split of the large Claiborne Parish as the 46^th parish.  C. Scott Yeager was the designer of this courthouse.  The new courthouse was built in 2013.  The parish seat’s name came from a region of Greece.  The parish got its name for Sieur de Bienville, Jean Baptiste le Moyne, French explorer and first French Governor of Louisiana. 

Bienville Parish government consists of a President, a sheriff, a clerk, a treasurer, and a coroner (executive).  It has 7 Police Jury Members (legislative.)  Three District Court Judges serve Bienville, Claiborne and Jackson parishes and Five Justice Court Judges serve Bienville Parish (judicial.) The parish is in northwest Louisiana to the east of Shreveport, Louisiana.  The parish center is 12.8 miles Southwest of Arcadia nearer Bryceland.  The parish is surrounded clockwise by Claiborne, Lincoln, Jackson, Winn, Natchitoches, Red River, Bossier, and Webster parishes. 

The area of the parish is 822 square miles.  It is 23 out of 64 in the state.  It ranks 55 out of 64 in population in the state.  It has a density of 15.8 persons per square mile making it 58 out of 64 in the state.  Bienville Parish has 46.9% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 20 cuts the northern part of the parish from Lincoln Parish, east, to Webster Parish, west.  United States Highway 80 parallels Interstate Highway 20 from Lincoln to Webster parishes.  United States Highway 371 crosses the western part of the parish north to south from Webster Parish to Red River Parish.  Black Lake Bayou travels south from the parish.  The southwest border and eastern borders are both formed by bayous.  Mt. Driskell, Louisiana’s highest point, is in the eastern part of the parish.  The parish is an upside down champagne cork with Arcadia in the extreme northeast corner.  Arcadia is the parish seat and the largest city.  It is 26.5% of the parish population.  The parish is pronounced BEE-EN-VIL.  The parish seat is pronounced R-CAE-DEE-A.

Saline