The Strangest Town In The South Is Right Here In Louisiana… And You’ll Want To Visit

Every town has its quirks, right? Well this small town of about 8,000 is really hopping… with frogs, that is! Let’s take a look at what put this rural town on the map as the Frog Capital of the World.

You’ll find Rayne over in Acadia Parish.

Frogs and Rayne have a long history, going all the way back to the late 1800s.

French immigrant Donat Pucheu knew that frog legs were a delicacy, and the area was abundant with them.

By 1887, Pucheu was shipping frogs from Rayne out of the back room of the Rayne Drop Inn. This was the beginning of Rayne’s relationship with frogs, but it certainly wouldn’t be the end.

For decades, Rayne was a massive export of frog legs, and quickly became known as The Frog Capital of the World.

While it's not the frog exporter it once was, you'll still find frogs pretty much everywhere you go, such as frog murals and hand painted statues all over the town. It certainly adds a unique charm to the town!

And who can blame them? After all, NASA picked two Rayne frogs to go to space in 1970!

That’s right, "Pierre" and "Tee Nom" boldly went where no frog had gone before. On November 9, 1970, two Rayne frogs went into space!

Rayne’s other claim to fame comes in the form of the cemetery at St. Joseph Catholic Church.

It’s the only one in the country that faces north-south rather than east-west.

Traditionally, cemeteries face east-west, (with the east representing the beginning of life with the rising of the sun, and the west representing the end of life with the setting of the sun.)

Perhaps the gravedigger didn’t have a compass, but the cemetery was built facing north-south.

By the time the error had been discovered, too many bodies had been buried and it would have been too costly to fix. So this cemetery has the distinct honor of being the only cemetery in the Judeo-Christian world that faces north-south rather than east-west.

So next time your'e in southwest Louisiana, hop on over to Rayne.

Seeing all of the murals and the cemetery is certainly worth your time.

Have you ever been to Rayne? Let us know in the comments below!