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The Mayor is Misty Roberts

The City of DeRidder was established in 1987, incorporated in 1903, and named the parish seat in 1912, when Beauregard Parish was established.

The town was named for Ella de ridder by her brother- in- law, a Dutch railroad financier, who brought the first railroad to this area of Louisiana. In 1896 Kansas City Southern Railroad built the railroad from Kansas City to Port Author and it came right through the area and the trains were running by 1898 which began the building of the town of DeRidder. In 1903 DeRidder was incorporated as a town, Merryville is still the only other incorporated town in Beauregard Parish. The first house in DeRidder was made of logs and covered with board shingles, split by hand from the logs of the forest. It was constructed in 1893 and was the old homestead house of Calvin Shirley, who was the original owner of the land upon which the first business house and residence of DeRidder were built. Mr. Shirley homesteaded the 160 acres which was later platted and became the original town site of DeRidder. Elevation of 203 feet above sea level. The population was 9,808 at the 2000 census. DeRidder is host to the former Beauregard Parish Jail which on December 17, 1981 was put on the National Register of Historic Places. August 09, 1983 forty-two buildings in the commercial district of DeRidder were put on the  National Register of Historic Places. In all Beauregard Parish has 13 places listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and out of the 13, 11 of them are in DeRidder. One is in Merryville, and the other is in Dry Creek.