Culture in Jeanerette Louisiana

When you make a list of all the unique things Louisiana has to offer visitors, you quickly see the long-lasting influences of our French, Spanish and African ancestry. Our past is well-preserved in our architecture, music, food and lifestyles—which include our amazing festivals—and of course in our museums of history and fine arts.

It is not an accident that Louisiana clings to the phrase "Laissez les bons temps rouler," meaning "Let the good times roll". Let yourself get lost in the traditions passed down through generations. Come visit us during Mardi Gras when costumed riders parade and magnificent balls are thrown from New Orleans and Baton Rouge to Houma, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport and beyond. Peek back across the centuries, as you walk under lavish ironwork and through the lush courtyard gardens of a meticulous French Quarter hotel. Touch history with a tour of a plantation where the daily activities of the past are recreated. Let nature's mysteries inspire and awe you via a boat tour through a cypress studded bayou.

Here, in Louisiana, history and lore don't merely live in books on a shelf; they're reflected in our everyday lives.

It’s nickname is "Sugar City," but Jeanerette derived its real name from John W. Jeanerette, a Carolina gentleman who came to Teche country in 1830 and purchased nearby Pine Grove Plantation. He offered a portion of his house to be used as an official mail depository for local inhabitants, and people sent mail to locals in care of John W. Jeanerette. When the “John W.” was later dropped, the name Jeanerette stuck.

Situated in Iberia Parish on the banks of beautiful Bayou Teche, Jeanerette was chartered as a town in 1878. Today, antebellum homes in and around the city stand as reminders of the boom years when the cypress lumber industry was a mainstay.

Sugarcane was key in the community’s economic growth during the past 200 years, and two sugar mills operate in the area. The manufacture of farm equipment for the cane industry also is important. Livestock, fish farming (hybrid striped bass), truck crops, rice, pecans, and fruits are among other local agricultural activities.

Jeanerette has a municipal airport home to a sizeable aviation community.

Jeanerette Museum, also called LeBeau Petit Musée, preserves the history of life in Bayou Teche. The sugarcane industry’s development over the last 200 years is explained in exhibits, video and an outdoor sugarcane patch.