1985 Map of Crowley

About this map

The Mermentau River and its intricate drainage network, including Bayou Nezpique and Bayou des Cannes, dominate the agricultural heartland of southern Louisiana. This mid-1980s survey captures the region's complex water-dependent geography, from the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge in the southwest to the urban expansion around Lafayette in the east. The landscape is defined by the rigid grid of rice fields and crawfish ponds, interlaced with the Southern Pacific Railroad and Missouri Pacific Railroad lines that historically connected these prairie towns to wider markets. Significant infrastructure like the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and Le Gros Memorial Airport highlight the 20th-century industrial and aviation developments that reshaped the economy of Acadia Parish and its neighbors. Smaller settlements like Church Point, Iota, and Gueydan serve as local nodes within this vast system of bayous and parish-spanning highways.