Town of JENA

Jena began life in the middle 1850s as Hemp’s Creek. This beautiful ever-running creek had fertile bottom and hammock lands for cultivation and was an excellent range for both cattle and hogs, and wild game and fish were abundant. A watermill was built on the creek to make corn meal and gin cotton followed by a couple of general stores at the intersection of the Harrisonburg-Alexandria and Summerville-Gelvins Creek roads. In the year 1871, the postoffice department, in an effort to eliminate all Creeks and Bayous from the names of its offices, asked that a new name be given the place. The town was renamed after Jena, Illinois, which was named for Jena, Germany.

Typical of the Bible Readers, the people of the Hemps Creek settlement soon turned their attention to educational facilities. In the year 1869, the men of the community built a school house of logs from the adjacent forest. The opening of Jena Seminary in the year 1892 marked the beginning of secondary education in what is now LaSalle Parish and marks the beginning of the present Jena school system, which is often referred to as a model for Louisiana.

The Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad was built through Jena in 1903 and by 1906 the town’s population had grown sufficiently to incorporate.

Type of Government: Mayor and Bd. of Alderman (5 Lawrason Act
Police: 5 officers /4 patrol cars.
Fire Department: 4 fulltime firefighters/15 vol./5 trucks
Fire Rating: 6 in city.
Health Care: LaSalle General Hospital
Recreation & Culture: LaSalle Parish Fair-Sept.
Hotels/Motels: 3, 56 rooms.