Oak Grove

Oak Grove is a small town of about 2,000 residents in northeast Louisiana; it is the parish seat of West Carroll Parish. The city promotes itself as "The North Gate to Poverty Point," a reference to Louisiana's only UNESCO World Heritage Site, located about 20 miles south of town. Poverty Point is an ancient collection of earthworks that were dug and built by hand thousands of years ago on the Bayou Maçon, a slow-moving waterway that runs just east of Oak Grove.

Downtown Oak Grove hosts the North Louisiana Sweet Potato Festival annually, where the small-town fest vibe is alive with rides, live bands and a sweet potato-cooking contest. Other Oak Grove area attractions include the Bayou Bartholomew Paddling Trail, which takes kayakers and canoeists down a stretch of the longest bayou in North America.