Crowley — The Rice Capital and Its Surprises

Founded in 1886 on the wet prairie of Acadia Parish, Crowley became the Rice Capital of America — mills and irrigation, flatland grain where cane wouldn't grow. The Rice Festival has run here since 1937, Louisiana's oldest agricultural fair. In 1959, Judge Edmund Reggie arranged for Senator Kennedy and Jackie to visit. One hundred thousand people packed the courthouse square. Jackie addressed the crowd in French — Sorbonne French, which in Cajun Country was a gesture that landed. Reggie's daughter Victoria was born in Crowley in 1954. She married Senator Ted Kennedy in 1992 and is now U.S. Ambassador to Austria. The deeper landmark is J.D. Miller's recording studio. Miller produced Slim Harpo, Lightnin' Slim, and Lazy Lester here — the foundational swamp blues catalog, the sound that came out of the cane breaks and rice fields of Acadiana and entered the American catalog. The studio later became MasterTrak. John Fogerty recorded here. Paul Simon recorded here. Crowley's name is in the liner notes of *Graceland*. Downtown Crowley is a walkable National Register Historic District. You go because rice built the architecture and swamp blues built the sound, and both are still there.