During the tenure of Sheriff Cat Doucet, from 1936 to 1940 and again from 1952 to 1968, the section of Opelousas along Highway 190 was a haven of gambling and prostitution, the profits from which he skimmed a take.

An official post was established in 1764; Frenchman Louis Gérard Pellerin was appointed as the first commandant on July 1, 1764.

LeBon, Prejean, Thibodaux, Esprit, Nezat, Hebert, Babineaux, Mouton, and Provost were some of the early Creole families.

Creoles of color were mostly assigned to mixed-race people, descended primarily from Native Americans, African-Americans, and ethnic French, with other heritage in more recent years.)

Five years later, the first St. Landry Parish Police Jury met in Opelousas, keeping minutes in the two official languages of English and French.

The long decline of cotton prices throughout the 19th century created economic problems, worsened by the lack of employment diversity.

In 1862, after Baton Rouge fell to the Union troops during the Civil War, Opelousas was designated the state capital for nine months.

[10] The one-story mansion was located on the corner of Liberty and Grolee Streets, just west of the heart of town.

An observation tower was removed from the top of the residence in the early 1900s, but the remainder of the exterior was identical to its original construction in the 1850s.

The entire roof section of heavy rafters was held in place by thousands of wooden pegs; not one nail could be found in the attic.

In 1868, in what is known as the Opelousas massacre, whites killed 27 African Americans in a mass execution; they had been captured in a protest.

This series of murders comprised one of the single worst instances of Reconstruction violence in south Louisiana.

These codes required blacks to have a written pass from their employer to enter the town and to state the duration of their visit.

[12][13] Like the Black Codes, such police regulations restricted the freedoms and personal autonomy of freedmen after the Civil War in the South.

In the late 19th century, New York City social services agencies arranged for resettlement of Catholic orphan children by sending them to western rural areas, including Opelousas, in Louisiana and other states.

[15] During the tenure of Parish Sheriff Cat Doucet from 1936 to 1940 and 1952 to 1968, the section of Opelousas along Highway 190 was a haven of gambling and prostitution.

[24] Freight rail service includes the Union Pacific Railroad and the shortline Acadiana Railway.

The city is home to KOCZ-LP, a low power community radio station owned and operated by the Southern Development Foundation.

The station was built by numerous volunteers from Opelousas and around the country at the third Prometheus Radio Project barnraising.

The horse racing track Evangeline Downs relocated to Opelousas from its former home in Carencro, Louisiana, in 2003.

The 1980s synthpop musician Thomas Dolby mentions Opelousas in the song "I Love You Goodbye" from his 1992 album Astronauts & Heretics.

The narrator of the song describes being arrested by a sheriff who offers to let him go in exchange for a bribe, under the guise of a contribution to the town's charity ball.

The folk-rock singer Lucinda Williams mentions Opelousas in the song "Concrete and Barbed Wire" from her critically acclaimed album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

Singer-songwriter and comedian Henry Phillips mentions Opelousas as one of the venues in his song "I'm In Minneapolis (You're In Hollywood)"'.