Ascension Parish () 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".
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 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.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of , of which is land and (4.2%) is water. It is the fourth-smallest parish in Louisiana by total area.
Waterways
Alligator Bayou
Amite River
Amite River Diversion Canal
Anderson Canal
Babin Canal
Bayou Antoine
Bayou Manchac
Bayou Narcisse
Bayou Pierre
Bayou Pas
Bayou Conway
Bayou Francois
Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Napoleon
Bayou Verret
Bayou Vicknair
Black Bayou
Blind River
Boudreau Bayou
Boyle Bayou
Braud Bayou
Cocodrie Bayou
Cotton Bayou
Crowley Ditch
Duckroost Bayou
Flat Lake
Grand Goudine Bayou
Hackett Canal
Heath Bayou
Henderson Bayou
Jim Bayou
Johnson Bayou
Lake Millet
Lake Villars
Laurel Ridge Canal
McCall Bayou
Mississippi River
Muddy Creek
New River
New River Canal
Old New River
Panama Canal
Pipeline Canal
Rocky Canal
Roddy Bayou
Saveiro Canal
Sides Bayou
Smith Bayou
Spanish Lake
Welsh Gully
Major highways
Louisiana Highway 1
Interstate 10
Louisiana Highway 16
Louisiana Highway 18
Louisiana Highway 22
Louisiana Highway 30
Louisiana Highway 42
Louisiana Highway 44
U.S. Highway 61
Louisiana Highway 70
Louisiana Highway 73
Adjacent parishes
East Baton Rouge Parish (north) Livingston Parish (northeast) St. John the Baptist Parish (east) St. James Parish (southeast) Assumption Parish (southwest) Iberville Parish (west)
Communities
Cities
Donaldsonville (parish seat) Gonzales