Lake Bruin State Park

Lake Bruin is an oxbow, a bend of the Mississippi River that the river left behind when it changed course. It is named for Peter Bryan Bruin, a Revolutionary War veteran and territorial judge who owned a plantation beside it. When Bruin's family came to the Natchez region around 1788 they reportedly brought 31 enslaved Africans, and in 1797 he signed a memorial asking Congress to let slavery continue in the Mississippi lands.

In the 1920s the Debusant family sold the lake and the land around it to the state. From 1928 to 1956 the site ran as a fish hatchery for the state wildlife department, and it had stood idle for about 15 years when it joined the state parks system in 1956 as Lake Bruin Wayside Park. Improvements began on February 1, 1957, and Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts volunteered to clear, clean and sod about 40 acres.

The park has picnic tables, three fishing piers, a playground, a bathhouse, boat rentals and a launch, rentable cabins and campsites with electricity and water. The state counts more than 3,000 acres of water surface. The address is 201 State Park Road, St. Joseph. Gates open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday (November 2026); call 318-467-9750 for fees. Winter Quarters State Historic Site, also in Tensas Parish, was home to more than 300 enslaved people; the state lists it as closed indefinitely.