26 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
The region hereabouts is called the Attakapa country, from the 
Indians who originally occupied it, of whom now a very few known 
descendants remain near Grand Lake. They were nearly annihilated 
by neighboring tribes, notably the Choctaws, at a battle on a hill 
about 3 miles east of Billeaud, just before the white settlers came 
into the country. Many of their burial mounds occur along the 
banks of Bayou Teche, and their weapons and utensils are found 
occasionally. 
Three miles northwest of Broussard the railroad crosses the Ver- 
milion River near the place where the first settlement was made in 
this region. It was located at the head of navigation 
Lafayette. and was of considerable importance as a trading post 
piaern age under the successive names of Little ee, 
New Orleans 146 miles, Pinhook, Vermilionville, and Lafayette. Here als 
in 1863 occurred an important battle of the Civil 
War when the Union troops moved through the Teche country and ~ 
established a camp at Lafayette. Lafayette, in the heart of the 
Attakapa country, has nearly doubled its population in a decade, 
owing to its advantages as a railroad and general commercial center. 
A branch railroad runs to Alexandria, on the Red River. The mean 
annual temperature here is 65°; the average for July is 81° and for 
January 52°. Lafayette is the westernmost of the old French towns, 
and many descendants of French settlers are included in its ner 
tion. In the southern edge of the town is the Southwestern Louisiana 
Institute. On exhibition at the railroad station is the first locomotive 
used on the Morgan Line, the predecessor of the Southern Pacific 
in this section. It contrasts strongly with modern locomotives. 
According to the United States census, in 1929 Lafayette Parish 
produced 18,394 bales of cotton, 135,524 bushels of rice, 146,246 tons 
of sugarcane, 45,027 pounds of figs, 166,045 bushels of sweetpotatoes, 
14,144 bushels of Irish potatoes, 14,262 bushels of soybeans, and 
505,445 bushels of corn. Oranges and pecans are also produced. 
There is a salt dome at Anse La Butte, 5 miles northeast of Lafay- 
ette, but holes drilled in it to a depth of 3,400 feet found only a small 
amount of petroleum. 
From Lafayette the railroad goes due west for 16 miles to and 
beyond Rayne over wide prairies with an average elevation near 35 
feet. Three miles west of Scott siding the Bayou Queue de Tortue 
(French, tail of a tortoise) is crossed. Rice fields soon begin to be 
conspicuous, especially near Duson, a siding named in honor of a 
Canadian refugee settler of early days. 
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