Best Web Design in Houma, LA (2026)

Web Design for Houma, Louisiana

Houma is the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish in southeastern Louisiana, a bayou city of about 33,000 sitting just 10 feet above sea level amid 2,500 square miles of wetlands. Named for the Houma people, it is a center of Cajun and Creole culture where French is still spoken and life revolves around seafood, sugarcane, and the offshore oil industry. Cypress-lined bayous, swamp tours, and Mardi Gras give it a distinct identity about an hour southwest of New Orleans.

AppWT works with Houma, LA businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Houma

Also known as. The Good Earth (from the French "terre bonne," the name of its parish, Terrebonne). Bayou Country. Heart of America's Wetland / Cajun Bayou country.

History. Terrebonne Parish was established in 1822, its name derived from French for "good earth" The Houma people settled the area in the mid-to-late 1700s after conflicts with other tribes; their word "houma" means "red," and the tribe's war emblem was the crawfish Acadians expelled from Nova Scotia by the British in 1755 (the "Cajuns") settled along the bayous, shaping the region's culture Houma was founded in 1832 and incorporated in 1848 (reincorporated 1898); its antebellum economy was built on sugarcane plantations City and parish governments consolidated in 1984 A January 24, 1970 gas explosion destroyed parts of downtown, including Latour's Jewelry Store, and killed three people Category 4 Hurricane Ida struck in August 2021, causing widespread damage and displacement lasting more than a year

Local economy. A leading U.S. area for oil-and-gas production, supporting a major inland-marine and port economy since offshore oil development began around 1929 Terrebonne Parish accounts for more than 20% of Louisiana's seafood production, including shrimp, oysters, crabs, and fish Major employers include Bollinger Shipyards, Edison Chouest Offshore, Danos, Oceaneering International, John Deere, and Terrebonne General (Medical Center) Health services employ roughly 7,000 people; the Houma-Terrebonne Airport industrial park supports about 2,000 direct industrial jobs plus aviation jobs Historic economy also included fur trapping of muskrat, mink, otter, raccoon, and nutria

Culture and community. A blend of French, Acadian, Native American, African, and Creole influences; more than 10% of residents speak French at home Signature Cajun and Creole cuisine: gumbo, crawfish, boudin, etouffee, and fresh Gulf seafood, celebrated along the Bayou Country Crawfish Trail Strong live-music tradition; blues musician and wetlands activist Tab Benoit founded the Voice of the Wetlands Festival here in 2005 (held each October) Mardi Gras is a major local celebration, with parades and its own royalty tradition A Vietnamese community that arrived after the 1970s became part of the local shrimping industry

What makes Houma distinct. Swampland kept Houma isolated from the rest of Louisiana and the U.S. well into the 1930s, which helped preserve Cajun French longer than almost anywhere else The city and its bayous have starred on screen in The Skeleton Key (2005), The Butler (2013), and Where the Crawdads Sing (2022), and it inspired the setting of DC Comics' Swamp Thing Houma's sister cities include Cambrai (France), Datca (Turkey), and Bathurst (Canada) The Houma tribe that gave the city its name, the United Houma Nation, is recognized by the state of Louisiana but still lacks federal recognition

Houma Landmarks and Local Life

• Southdown Plantation House / Terrebonne Museum - an 1859 Greek Revival home (Victorian second floor added 1893) on the National Register, showcasing sugarcane history and a Mardi Gras collection
• Le Petit Theatre de Terrebonne - housed in the former City Hall downtown
• The bayous and cypress swamps used for popular swamp tours - birding, and the Wetlands Cultural Byway / Bayou Terrebonne
• Acadian deportation cross monuments memorializing the Cajun expulsion
• Historic downtown Houma along Bayou Terrebonne