Scott and Duson, LA: Where the West Begins
When Jakob Goodwin isn’t spending time with his wife and their two children at home, working as a SCADA engineer at Techneaux Technology Services or eating at a favorite local Cajun restaurant, he’s probably playing music at the Begnaud House.
This culture and tourism center in Scott, LA, hosts regular jam sessions and get-togethers. Goodwin loves to play traditional Cajun music with his son and friends there or go for walks around the pond. His time spent at the Begnaud House is just one of the many reasons he loves and remains in this pocket of the Lafayette, LA, region.
“We’re really Scott people that just never had a reason to move away,” he says.
For residents of Scott and neighboring Duson, LA, the reasons to stay are many. Infused with Cajun culture, the area blends music and technology, the French language, and education and food.
The small-community atmosphere and slower pace of life make for a unique place to call home, according to Johnny Thibodeaux, mayor of the Town of Duson.
“Growing up here and knowing all of the area people helps me to enjoy my Cajun-French heritage,” Thibodeaux says. “I don’t have to live here, but … I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
Businesses Move Forward in Scott and Duson, LA
Residents make a point to support locally owned businesses, whether that’s restaurants, retail or even high-tech solutions providers like Techneaux. This makes Scott and Duson, LA, great places to start a company and find employment, according to Jan-Scott Richard, mayor of the City of Scott.
“Our parish is growing tremendously,” Richard says. “All the municipalities that make up Lafayette Parish, in conjunction with the city of Lafayette, have thrived.”
The municipalities’ location along Interstate 10 and near Interstate 49 helps; it even harkens back to the early days of Scott being a transportation hub.
The construction of the Scott Depot in 1880 put the area on the map for commerce and tourism. Because it was the first stop for westbound passengers paying western railway rates, Scott earned the nickname “Where the West Begins.”
Today, the depot is a veterans memorial, and the slogan has changed slightly. The legacy, however, remains a point of pride.
“Now, we say it’s ‘Where the West Begins and the Boudin Never Ends,’” Richard says.
Boudin & Beyond
Boudin is a Cajun delicacy that typically contains pork, rice, onions, peppers and seasonings. As the Boudin Capital of the World, Scott is home to a number of homegrown shops and eateries that sell their variation of the Cajun staple. Scott also draws visitors heading to popular restaurants – like Fezzo’s (a seafood, steakhouse and oyster bar) and Uncle T’s Oyster Bar – which also specialize in gumbo and crawfish boils.
Duson’s Cajun Claws Seafood Boilers, which specializes in Louisiana seafood, and Lazy Caveman, which serves up some mean boudin, round out the area’s traditional offerings.
“These local restaurants serve authentic Cajun food – the way our mothers used to cook food – in a friendly atmosphere, usually with a small Cajun band,” Thibodeaux says.
While Scott’s Rochetto’s Pizzeria and other restaurants provide options, The Rolling Pin in Duson provides the taste of something entirely different. Duson native Brad Sonnier II creates a variety of classic French pastries and other baked goods in the commercial kitchen on his property, while his wife helps with administration and marketing.
“There are not many businesses like mine on this end of our parish,” he says. “If you want to get what I have, typically you’ve got to go all the way into Lafayette.”
Sonnier earned a culinary arts degree in New Orleans and a pastry degree at L’Academie de Cuisine in Maryland. He worked as an assistant pastry chef at The Ritz-Carlton outside Washington, D.C., before returning to his hometown.
Duson is undergoing steady, gradual growth, Sonnier says, “we’re starting to see a lot more development nowadays with the bigger city coming out our way.”
Scott and Duson, LA, Are Growing
This growth prompts needs for further housing and services. Duson is preparing for more residents with multiphase housing projects underway at the Cane Place and Rosemont Village subdivisions. The town is poised to approve another plat off Toby Mouton Road.
“Once all of these are constructed, we will have roughly 407 new homes in our community,” Thibodeaux says.
In Scott, Goodwin appreciates the education options, including a STEM program at L. Leo Judice Elementary School. Goodwin’s son is in a French immersion program, which helps him connect with his culture, family and visitors from abroad.
“I speak more of a Cajun French, and he speaks more of a Québécois French,” Goodwin says. “Loads of people from France and Quebec come through [the Begnaud House]. They just get a kick about how we speak French down here. They always say it’s almost like they’re going back in time.”
While the area is small, it has global connections through language and culture. Scott’s sister cities are Memramcook, New Brunswick, and Saint-Aubin, France, while Duson’s is Cézy, France. And people travel to Scott from all over each April for the Scott Boudin Festival.
“It allows all of the festivalgoers the opportunity to participate in whatever facet, whether it’s dancing, listening to the music or the carnival, or, obviously, we have food in the boudin,” Richard says.
What really makes the Scott and Duson area special is its close-knit, friendly community, according to Goodwin.
“We try to go above and beyond to make people feel welcome here,” he says. “It’s really the people here that make everyone want to come back, to stop through and get some boudin.”
This article is sponsored by the Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission, Lafayette Economic Development Authority and One Acadiana.