Vacherie is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in St. James Parish,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is part of the

New Orleans Metropolitan Area The New Orleans metropolitan area, designated the New Orleans–Metairie metropolitan statistical area by the Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, or simply Greater New Orleans (, ), is a List of United States me ...

. The name of the place derives from the French word for ''cowshed''. On the SW side of the community used to be the WZRH/

KVDU KVDU (104.1 FM, "104.1 The Vibe") is a commercial radio station licensed to Gonzales, Louisiana, and serving the Baton Rouge metropolitan area. It airs an urban adult contemporary radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It features ...

-Tower, a

guyed mast A guyed mast is a tall thin vertical structure that depends on guy lines (diagonal tensioned cables attached to the ground or a base) for stability. The mast itself has the compressive strength to support its own weight, but does not have the ...

noted as the tallest tower in the state of Louisiana. It fell in 2021 after being damaged by

Hurricane Ida Hurricane Ida was a deadly and extremely destructive tropical cyclone in 2021 that became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana on record, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In terms of m ...

. The best known location in the community is the Oak Alley Plantation. There are several other historic

plantations Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacco ...

in the area: Laura,

Desire Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like "wanting", "wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of affa ...

, St. Joseph, and Felicity. The last two were combined in 1890. Vacherie was used as a

filming location A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, instead of or in addition to using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage. In filmmaking, a location is any place where a film crew wi ...

for the TV series ''

True Detective ''True Detective'' is an American Anthology series, anthology Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Nic Pizzolatto for the premium cable network HBO. The series premiered on January 12, 2014, and ...

''.

Census-designated places

Vacherie is split into two

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

s, North Vacherie and South Vacherie, by the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

. As of the 2020 census, North Vacherie had a population of 2,093 and South Vacherie had a population of 3,388.

Education

St. James Parish Public Schools operates public schools. St. James High School is located in Vacherie. Vacherie Elementary School in South Vacherie serves the community.

Notable people

* Valcour Aime, planter and plantation owner * Alcée Fortier,

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and folklorist * George T. Oubre, state senator * H. H. Richardson, architect * Corey Webster, football player for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

* Alfred C. Williams, state representative for

East Baton Rouge Parish East Baton Rouge Parish (; ) is the most populous List of parishes in Louisiana, parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its population was 456,781 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The county seat, parish seat is Baton Rouge, Louis ...

References

Louisiana populated places on the Mississippi River Unincorporated communities in Louisiana New Orleans metropolitan area {{Louisiana-geo-stub