The resolution that drew Acadiana on the map

House Concurrent Resolution No. 496 is the reason a map of Louisiana has a region called Acadiana. The Louisiana House adopted it in 1971. It recognized 22 parishes, from Calcasieu and Cameron east to St. Charles, as "The Heart of Acadiana."

The resolution recognized those parishes for their "Cajun and Acadian heritage." That wording survives in a 2014 House resolution that cites HCR 496 by number. The House of Representatives still keeps a page listing the 22 parishes. The stated aims were to build the region's image and attract tourists.

The word came first

The word is older than the resolution. The Advocate reports that its earliest known printed use ran in the Crowley Daily Signal on October 15, 1946. We have not yet seen the page image of that edition.

In 1963, KATC-TV in Lafayette, launched the year before as Acadian Television Corp., received an FCC invoice addressed to "Acadiana Television Corp." Station management kept the misspelling as the name of its broadcast region. The station never trademarked it.

By 1971 the Legislature had a newspaper word and a television station's typo. It wrote them onto 22 parishes.

What we do not have yet

We have not found the original 1971 text. It is not in the Legislature's online archive. It is not in the digitized House Journal or on HathiTrust.

The date is also unsettled. One widely repeated date is June 6, 1971, which was a Sunday. The Historic New Orleans Collection gives 1972 for the recognition. The Advocate says Gov. Edwin Edwards signed the measure in 1971, but Edwards took office in May 1972, and concurrent resolutions do not normally go to the governor. We treat each of those claims as unconfirmed.

One online source names a sponsor. We have not confirmed it, so we are not printing it.

What we will pull

The House Journal for the 1971 regular session is held at the State Library of Louisiana. The Record Desk will request the pages for HCR 496 and publish them in full, with the vote.