Map of Ascension Parish, Louisiana

Ascension Parish (French: Paroisse de l’Ascension, Spanish: Parroquia de Ascensión) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 126,500. Its parish seat is Donaldsonville. The parish was created in 1807. Ascension Parish is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area.

Ascension Parish is one of the 22 parishes that make up Acadiana, the heartland of the Cajun people and their culture. This is exhibited by the prevalence of the French or Cajun French language heard throughout the parish, as well as the many festivals celebrated by its residents, including the Boucherie Festival, Lagniappe Music and Seafood Festival, Crawfish Festival, and the Jambalaya Festival. The largest incorporated city in Ascension Parish, Gonzales, is celebrated as the “Jambalaya Capital of the World”.

Ascension Parish overview:
Name:	Ascension Parish
FIPS code:	22-005
State:	Louisiana
Founded:	1807
Named for:	Ascension of Jesus Christ
Seat:	Donaldsonville
Largest city:	Prairieville
Total Area:	303 sq mi (780 km²)
Land Area:	290 sq mi (800 km²)
Total Population:	126,500
Population Density:	420/sq mi (160/km²)
Time zone:	UTC−6 (Central)
Summer Time Zone (DST):	UTC−5 (CDT)
Website:	www.ascensionparish.net

Ascension Parish location map. Where is Ascension Parish?

Ascension Parish location on the U.S. Map. Where is Ascension Parish. — Location of Ascension Parish in the the United States.

Ascension Parish location on the Louisiana map. Where is Ascension Parish. — Location of Ascension Parish in Louisiana.

History

Early European settlers of the area that was developed as Ascension and Gonzales were, for the most part, of French and Spanish ancestry. They settled among the Houma Indians who lived in the area.

Among the projects and plans carried out by Luis de Unzaga ‘le Conciliateur’ while he was governor of Louisiana between 1769 and 1777 was the promotion of new settlements by Europeans, among them were French Acadians and Malaga in the fertile Mississippi region and more specifically in the Unzaga Post or ‘Puesto de Unzaga’ that he created in 1771 in Pointe Coupee, the parish of Saint Gabriel in 1773 and Fort Manchac in 1776; the Ascension people occupied land at the confluence of the aforementioned European settlements.

During the American Civil War, desertions had been of major concern to the Confederate States Army. Henry Watkins Allen, before he was governor, reported more than eight thousand deserters and draft-dodgers about Bayou Teche. There were some 1,200 deserters in Livingston, St. Tammany, and Ascension parishes.

Planters in Ascension Parish later complained of raids by guerrillas. In 1864, planter W.R. Hodges requested soldiers to protect the planted fields from such attacks. Union soldiers were accused of “wandering about at will, and helping themselves . . . to whatever could be found,” explains the historian John D. Winters in his The Civil War in Louisiana (1963).

During the historic 2016 Louisiana Floods, around one-third of all homes in Ascension Parish were flooded; 15,000 homes and businesses took on water, mostly in the Galvez-St. Amant area, prompting a visit to St. Amant by then-presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump.

Ascension Parish Road Map

Ascension ParishStreet Map. — Street map of Ascension Parish, Louisiana. Source: OpenStreetMap (OSM)

Ascension ParishMap — Ascension Parishpolitical map.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 303 square miles (780 km), of which 290 square miles (750 km) is land and 13 square miles (34 km) (4.2%) is water. It is the fourth-smallest parish in Louisiana by total area.