Gueydan Map
Gueydan is a town in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,598 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Abbeville Micropolitan Statistical Area.
For thousands of years, indigenous peoples lived along the waterways of Louisiana. They were able to hunt plentiful game and harvest fish from the rivers. In historic times, this area was inhabited by the Attakapa and Chitimacha.
In the early 1860s, Jean Pierre Gueydan, the founder of the European-American town, lived in Abbeville, Louisiana, about 30 miles east of present-day Gueydan. As had the Attapaka and earlier American Indian tribes, he often came to the future town site to hunt deer, ducks, geese, pheasant, cache-cache (Jack Snipe), papabottes, and other game. The area was a hunter's paradise. Game and fish were boundless.
Nearby cities include Lake Arthur, Estherwood, Mermentau, Kaplan, Egan.