Vermilion River (Rotary Point)

In the 1970s the Vermilion had a reputation as the most polluted river in the United States. Its water is used mainly for rice irrigation and for diluting municipal and industrial chemicals and sewage. The Army Corps of Engineers had finished dredging the bayou in 1944, to a depth of nine feet and a bottom width of 100 feet. The river's turnaround came from better sewage treatment, extra fresh water in low flow, and regular trash collection. It is now a recreational resource, with a paddle trail map for visitors.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vermilionville — 2.4 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.
• Cypress Island Preserve at Lake Martin — 7.7 mi
  Nearly 10,000 acres of bottomland hardwood and cypress-tupelo swamp at the south end of Lake Martin, owned by The Nature Conservancy, with a boardwalk and a rookery of egrets, spoonbills and alligators.
• St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church — 13 mi
  The Mother Church of the Acadians, founded in 1765 on St. Martin Square in St. Martinville, with a late 1870s Lourdes grotto and, a block away, the Evangeline Oak on Bayou Teche.
• Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site — 13 mi
  A bayou-side state site on former Attakapas hunting ground, with a raised Creole cottage of about 1815, a reproduction 1800 farmstead and its slave quarters, and the story behind Longfellow's Evangeline.

More markers nearby

• Bayou Vermilion — 0.8 mi
• James Domengeaux — 0.9 mi
• McNaspy Stadium Memorial — 1.3 mi
• Amédé Ardoin / Dennis McGee — 1.3 mi