After years of planning and work, the village of Loreauville now finally has its own Acadian Odyssey Monument.

The monument is part of a world network of monuments that began in 1999 and was created and developed with the goal of permanently highlighting the odyssey of the Acadian people in Canada, North America and the World.

“The area of Fausse Point played an important part of Acadian history,” according to a prepared statement from the Village of Loreauville. “It was a place that the first wave of Acadians made their home and established family roots.”

Mayor Brad Clifton said an official ceremony welcoming the new monument is expected to take place in April, when members of the Société Nationale de l’Acadie are expected to visit the village for the occasion.

The monument is located near the Bayou Teche on Bridge Street in Loreauville, next to the kayak launch and near the location of a new fire station that is expected to be built soon as well.

“We’ve got some dressing up to do in the area, but the monument itself is finished,” Clifton said.

Acadian Odyssey Monuments currently exist in many Canadian locations like New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Loreauville location will be the second Louisiana location after a Houma monument was installed in 2011 and capped with a replica of the Grand-Pré Deportation Cross.

The Société Nationale de l’Acadie, the organization that sponsors the monument program, requires a justification to be submitted for review. Shane Bernard and Don Arceneaux were crucial in submitting the Loreauville application for the monument, according to the prepared statement.

The desire for Loreauville to have an Acadian Odyssey Monument is a longstanding one. Mayor Al Broussard, the former Loreauville mayor who was killed in a vehicle accident in 2015, was the president of the New Acadia Project, a longstanding archeological project to discover the first Acadian settlement which is expected to be in the Loreauville area.

“After his passing I knew we had to continue the dream he had of being able to bring this monument here,” Mayor Brad Clifton said.

The funds received for the monument also came from years of community projects in the Loreauville area, including the Mayor Al 5K Run.