Pointe-Aux-Loups Springs, or Wolf Point, is one of the oldest place names of the Acadia Parish area.

Its first significance was the presence of 3 artisan springs that combined to create a coulee’ or tributary to Bayou Des Cannes several miles West of present day Iota, La. Prior to European settlement, it was said to be a summer home for local Atakapas Indian tribes as the waters offered relief from the summer heat and were believed to have healing properties. First mention of the place in government papers is in records of 1811, when William McKoy purchased 640 acres of land at “Wolf Point”.

In 1835 the property was recorded as No. 1 in the Abstract of U.S. Land Entries, in the Acadia Parish Courthouse, when Archille and Marcellon Doucet, Antoine Hebert and Louis Semar purchased each 161.26 acres of Pointe-Aux-Loups. Pointe-Aux-Loups Springs and surrounding developments became a well known summer resort prior to the Civil War. The Opelousas Courier of June 5, 1858 carried an eloquently phrased advertisement where the owner (Antoine Cart) is advertising to the public a place to vacation at the springs. Bathe in its healing waters, stay in its comfortable dwellings, pasture your horses and leave refreshed and healthy; is a short summary to the article.

Advertisements continued to appear in the Opelousas Courier until the Civil War years when publication of the paper was suspended. After the war, the advertising appeared again and by 1873 the Pointe-Aux-Loups Springs were attracting people from outside the Opelousas area. Notable were the paper editor himself, Joel H. Sandoz; Judge A Garrigues, A. Levy, Joseph Bloch, his wife and servants. Items in the news columns told of Saturday night balls at the Springs. There was a New Year’s Eve dance. Advertisement for the Grand Ball, inserted in the Christmas 1878 issue of the Courier, was illustrated with a drawing of a dancing couple. Noted in the Opelousas Courier June 2, 1877, G. Miller purchased Pointe-Aux-Loups Springs and began renovations. After thorough repair and much improvement, it will now be open as in former years. On May 31, 1879 the Courier reported that Mr & Mrs Miller had arrived at the Springs, “That celebrated watering place for health and pleasure,” for the season. Noted among the improved facilities were the buildings, four mineral springs and five bath houses. The main department of the hotel had 12 sleeping apartments; there were three new buildings with two rooms each, and 10 other rooms to rent. The meals were classed as excellent. Rates were a $1.50/day or $40/month.

Detailed religious records of Catholic Jesuit priest traveling there to give mass. A school was opened in 1881 in the area called Pointe-Aux-Loups. It was recorded the mineral rich springs gave out some time around 1907. It was thought this was caused by oil exploration and deep water well drilling. The two combined lowered the water table and geologic forces that made the Springs flow.

The Daily Signal of May 29, 1905 published “New Information” of the story how the Springs were discovered. It stated that Placide Richard and his family camped in the vicinity in 1814, with additional information that Richard bathed his son, afflicted with scrofula, in the springs on the advice of Attakapas Indians, and the boy was cured. Legends of the times said that the Attakapas Indians had bathed in the waters of the springs, also that Jean Lafitte had visited the springs.

Mrs. Miller, long time proprieties of the Pointe-Aux-Loups hotel, was born in Hanover, Germany, January 21, 1840. She came to Acadia Parish with her brother, Henry J Fischer.

Jules Menu, a native of Brittany, Cote du Nord, France, came to Pointe-Aux-Loups in 1886. He farmed until 1900 when he went into the lumber business and a year later went into buying and selling rice. He was President of Farmer’s Mercantile and bank of Iota.

More Recent History:

In 2001, 143 years after its first public advertisement, Pointe-Aux-Loups Springs once again became a destination place in the form of an event and wedding venue. Today one hundred and sixty six years later it’s still serving as such. Utilized as the main entertainment hall is a 1930 brick pump house built by the Louisiana Irrigation Association, proceeded by an earlier pump house built by C.C. Duson, too historically serve as a pump station for the Acadiana Canal during Louisiana’s early rice industry.

Its history is as follows: The Acadian canal, built by C.C. Duson, was under construction in 1900. The main pumping plant was built at Pointe-aux-Loups Springs on Bayou Des Cannes, about 18 miles northwest of Crowley. The water was lifted 29 feet from the bayou and carried through a cypress flume built on trestles 28 feet high, for a distance of a half mile. The flume was 15 feet wide and 4 feet deep and ran nearly full when the four pumps were in operation.

A half mile from the pumping station the water emptied into the canal proper, which was 100 feet wide and five miles long, not counting the laterals. The canal crossed the Midland-Eunice branch railroad at a point one and a half miles above the town of Iota; the water was re-lifted here seven feet and carried to a higher level. Company officers in 1900 were C.C. Duson, George Croker of New York City, and R.R. Duson. The system’s capacity at the end of 1901 was 2000 acres. In 1904 five of its seven canals were taken over by the Louisiana Irrigation and Milling Company.

In 1930 the Louisiana Irrigation Association completed a brick pump house with beautiful architecture and style. Oddly ornate and significant to only serve its purpose to house engines. Its location is approximately 100 yards from the site of the original hotels of Pointe-aux-Loups Springs. This beautiful building was restored in the late 1990’s to serve the purpose of the main ballroom for Pointe-aux-Loup Springs Ballroom, LLC. A new roof had to be added but preserved as original is the foundation, brick work & walls, and window frames. Added to the back of the building is a Bar area to overlook Bayou Des Cannes. A South wing to add additional tables and seating space, and a North wing for bathrooms and a commercial kitchen. The grounds directly around the building have been improved to provide an outdoor ceremony area and beautiful seating locations. Evident on the ground is the original artisan spring bathing location and a remnant brick in ground shallow water well that once served the hotels. Other old infrastructure and ruins are found throughout the property.