by Alana A. Carmon

De Soto Parish was created in 1843 from territory formerly incorporated in Caddo and Natchitoches parishes. The parish was named in honor og Don Joseph Marcelo DeSoto, who brought the first thirty white families to the area and established the village Ville du Bayou Pierre.

The earliest settlers, the French and Spanish, occupied the region late in the eighteenth century. By the 1830s, Americans from Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, the Carolinas, Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee emigrated to the area and began to outnumber the pioneers.

Mansfield, the seat of justice in DeSoto Parish, is historically notable as the site of a major Confederate victory during the Civil War. The Confederate triumph in April of 1864 spared Shreveport and Texas from Union invasion. The battle site can be toured at Mansfield State Commemorative Park.

Parish Tourism Commission

Parish Information

Parish Events

FESTIVALS

Frontier Days
River City Fest Louisiana
Blueberry Festival

PRINCIPAL TOWNS

Grand Cane

Logansport

Longstreet

Mansfield

South Mansfield