Great Britain took over control of this French territory east of the Mississippi River in 1763 after defeating France in the Seven Years' War.

This area was under contention, and English and American settlers tried to set up an independent state here in 1810.

Through much of this period, the French influence remained strong in the region, especially in its former colonial cities.

This area was rural and forested with virgin longleaf pine (Pinus palustris L.) In the early 20th century, entrepreneurial brothers Frank and Charles W. Goodyear, already successful businessmen from Buffalo, New York, purchased hundreds of thousands of acres of forest in this area and in southwestern Mississippi.

They established the Great Southern Lumber Company, constructed a huge sawmill (the largest in the world at the time) in the middle of the forest, and developed Bogalusa, Louisiana, as a company mill town.

In the early 20th century, there were numerous confrontations as workers attempted to unionize and companies hired private militia to suppress such activities.

[6] At the 2020 United States census, there were 45,463 people, 17,613 households, and 11,924 families residing in the parish.

In 1906, The Great Southern Lumber Company, founded by the Goodyear brothers from New York, purchased huge tracts of forest and established a sawmill in Bogalusa to harvest the local virgin pine forests.

This company was the first to introduce reforestation in order to sustain the timber industry locally.

Taken over by Crown Zellerbach, it later started a paper mill and chemical businesses in the area.

The local business passed through several hands as the lumber and related industries restructured through the late 20th century.

[13] Students within Ward 4[citation needed] attend Bogalusa City Schools.