Opelousas

Before it was a town, Opelousas was a name taken from the Opelousa people, who lived in this country before Europeans came. French trappers and traders arrived in the early 1740s to deal with them. In 1764 France made the place an official post and named Louis Gérard Pellerin its first commandant that July. By 1769 about a hundred mostly French families lived around it, and a church stood by 1765. The city was incorporated in 1821. Begin at the courthouse square with that older word, because the name came from the people who were here first.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Le Vieux Village and the Venus House — 0.5 mi
  A heritage park in Opelousas built around the Venus House of about 1791, the home of a free Creole woman of color, Marie Francois Venus, with an old schoolhouse, Methodist church and the visitor center's zydeco music exhibit.
• Prairie Acadian Cultural Center — 21 mi
  A National Park Service center in Eunice on the Cajun prairie, with exhibits on the Acadians who settled the prairies, a Courir de Mardi Gras display, free music and cooking demonstrations, and the shuttered Liberty Theatre nearby.
• Vermilionville — 23 mi
  A living-history village of about 23 acres on Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette, opened in 1990 to interpret the Native peoples, Acadians, Creoles and people of African descent of the Attakapas region.
• Atchafalaya Welcome Center — 25 mi
  A state welcome center inside the Atchafalaya Basin, the nation's largest river swamp, with exhibits on Basin history and life, a film, a crawfishing boat and French-speaking staff.

More markers nearby

• Opelousas (Capital of Confederate Louisiana) — steps away
• Jim Bowie Oak — steps away
• Manon's Corner — steps away
• Delta Theater — steps away