In 1932, Mason Spencer, a state representative from the nearby town of Tallulah, armed with a gun and a hunting permit, shot a rare male ivory-billed woodpecker on a large tract of swamp forest land owned by the Singer Sewing Company.

He killed the bird to prove to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries that the creature existed in Madison Parish, as that had been a matter in dispute.

Senator Allen J. Ellender to work for the establishment of a proposed Tensas Swamp National Park to preserve sixty thousand acres of lands then owned by the Singer Company.

Ellender's bill died in committee, but in 1998, Congress established the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge.

[2] This article incorporates public domain material from Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge.