It is unlikely that
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in his 1687 journey into Louisiana ever set foot in Bienville Parish. In 1690, the Ringgold area was explored by the scout
Domingo Terán de los Ríos, whom the government of
Mexico sent to determine the extent of the holdings of the
Caddo Indians. He was considered the first white leader to sight what became the man-made Lake Bistineau. A priest with the expedition, Father Masinettes, established "Mission Loretteto." De los Rios was thereafter from 1891 to 1892 the first
governor of
Spanish Texas. In November 1933, C. E. Tomme, a telephone executive who was previously a
county commissioner of
Newton County in
East Texas, was appointed mayor of Ringgold by
Governor Oscar K. Allen. Tomme, who relocated to Ringgold in 1920, filled the position vacated by his fellow
Democrat, Walter McDowell. Tomme previously served on the
Bienville Parish School Board and the parish Democratic Executive Committee. In the spring of 1934, Tomme won election to the post, 86-66, over Dave Thomas. In 1933, African American Nelson Nash was lynched and hung in the town. He died protecting his wife. Ringgold became the home of a Southland Christian Ministries camp and retreat located on a 23-acre lake off
U.S. Route 371 north of the community. Initially constructed during the early 1940s by the
United States Army Corps of Engineers, the facility was purchased in the middle 1940s by the Bible Memory Association, which then operated "Miracle Camp" until it was closed for financial reasons in the early 1990s. Southland subsequently obtained the property with help of the Tri-City
Baptist Church of
Independence,
Missouri. On May 2, 1984, a
tornado devastated part of Ringgold. Nine were injured, though there were no deaths. The storm reached as far as nearby
Jamestown. On March 25, 2017, the Ringgold Assembly of God Church was destroyed in a
tornado. There were no injuries. In 2018, the town of Ringgold was highlighted in the media for drug activity, citing lack of economic growth. Since then, the Mayor Milton Vining Administration has collaborated with the local community in an effort to reduce poverty and drugs, and attract local businesses. During the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Ringgold's government enforced a curfew, and local African American student Antavion Moore became Louisiana's Student of the Year from 2019-2020. ==Geography==