The third-oldest city in the state was first inhabited by French traders in 1690, who traded with the local Opelousas people for several decades before the region was settled in 1782. Opelousas was incorporated as a town 18 years after the Americans acquired the territory under the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

The surrounding farmlands of Opelousas supported a large agricultural and livestock industry.

Many cattle drives took place along the stretch of the Old Spanish Trail, from the present-day city to New Orleans. By the Civil War, Opelousas was flourishing from the additional cash crop of cotton, making the town a well-suited state capital during the Union army’s occupation of Baton Rouge in 1862-63. Opelousas did not engage in heavy fighting until October 1863, when the city lost and regained control from Union troops, only to succumb once again to Union occupation for the remainder of the war.

Now a city of nearly 23,000 residents, Opelousas is renowned as “the Zydeco Capital of the World” and birthplace of zydeco’s king, Clifton Chenier. Opelousas also boasts some of the best zydeco dens in Louisiana. The Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival is held in nearby Plaisance on Hwy 167 every Labor Day weekend.

The Opelousas Museum and Interpretive Center presents an exhibit of the city’s regional history together with a cultural overview.

The city itself is centered around the well-preserved nineteenth-century Courthouse Square where some of the brick pavement dates back to 1838. Opelousas was also the boyhood home of Jim Bowie, famous for his design of the Bowie Knife, who died at the Alamo in Texas. His home on Landry Street serves as both the Opelousas Tourist Center and Jim Bowie Museum, and features a collection of documents and firearms.

The Cajun prairie is an interesting place to explore, especially 6 miles north of the city at the old steamboat port of Washington; its Acadian cottages and antebellum estates, along with a mixture of Cajun and Creole residents, make the town colorful and unique.

An 80-minute drive east of Opelousas near St Francisville is the Angola State Penitentiary, and its museum. Visitors will find the museum and the history of the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” grim but fascinating. The museum also houses the script from the movie \”Dead Man Walking,\” which was based on the life of an Angola inmate.

Opelousas is serviced by Baton Rouge’s airport, 52 miles east along Hwy 90.