Iota, LA

Iota is an Acadia Parish town tied to Pointe-aux-Loups—French for “Wolf Point”—an older settlement about two miles west of today's town. Mineral springs there drew visitors beginning around 1858, and the name still sits in Iota's local backstory. On Mardi Gras Day, the Tee-Mamou-Iota Mardi Gras Folklife Festival brings Cajun music, food, crafts, and Courir tradition into the streets. Iota is southwest Louisiana with a French place name, a spring-fed past, and a calendar that knows how to make an entrance.