With the distinctive designations of “Gateway to the Atchafalaya Basin,” “Home of Longfellow’s Evangeline” and “The Crawfish Capital of the World,” St. Martin Parish in south-central Louisiana is a place like none other. Located two hours west of New Orleans, St. Martin Parish exudes the Cajun and Creole cultures. It’s where food is almost a religion, where people play just as hard as they work and where history is alive and well.
Planning a visit? Consult the St. Martin Parish Tourist Commission.
St. Martin Parish is a picturesque and bountiful region. Visitors are awed by sugar cane fields, low-lying swampland and rolling lands of beauty. Majestic live oaks, draped with moss, are scattered along roadways. Bald cypress trees and their unique stumps abound.
Here are two interesting facts: a surveying error dating to 1868 split the parish into two noncontiguous parts, making it the only divided or separated parish or county in the U.S.; and approximately 27 percent of the population of St. Martin Parish has French fluency, giving it the highest percentage of French-speaking residents of any county or parish in the U.S.
There are three major geographical areas dividing the 739.9-square-mile parish: the Atchafalaya Basin, the prairie and the Bayou Teche area, on which several major cities, including St. Martinville, the parish seat, are located. The other leading communities in the parish are Breaux Bridge and Henderson.
The Acadians, who were forcibly removed from their farmsteads in old Acadie (present-day Nova Scotia), arrived in what is now St. Martinville in 1765, when the acting governor sent 193 refugees to establish a village. As the sixth oldest city in Louisiana, St. Martinville retains many buildings and homes reflecting the beautiful architecture of days gone by. The city’s Creole heritage is strongly represented by its inhabitants and is reflected in the cuisine and culture and customs. In addition, St. Martinville has become internationally symbolic of the Acadian legacy, holding sacred the history of the Acadian people who settled in Louisiana.
Restaurants in Breaux Bridge, where Acadian pioneers first settled in 1771, were the first to offer crawfish openly on their menus, and it was here that the now world-famous crawfish etouffée was created. Breaux Bridge became so well known for its crawfish farming and cooking that the Louisiana legislature officially designated Breaux Bridge as “the crawfish capital of the world” in honor of its centennial celebration in 1959. Since this designation, Breaux Bridge has hosted the annual crawfish festival, recognized as one of the state’s finest festivals.
Henderson was founded in the 1930s after the government ordered the construction of larger levees in the Atchafalaya Basin. Today, Henderson provides some of the finest opportunities for fresh water fishing in the south, offering anglers the opportunity to catch bass, sac-au-lait (crappie), bream and other species.
For authentic Cajun music and cuisine, check out the Atchafalaya Club, Whiskey River Landing and McGee’s Landing in Henderson and the Café des Amis, Pont Breaux’s Cajun Restaurant and La Poussiere in Breaux Bridge.