Jeanerette
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.