Pointe Coupee has a recorded history dating to 1699, making it one of the oldest communities in the Mississippi Valley. In 1846 the town of New Roads was named parish seat when the original courthouse located on the Mississippi River burned down. Pointe Coupee has a diversity of cultures, better described as "Where River History and French Culture Collide." Nestled between the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers that provide deep alluvial soils, Pointe Coupee is one of the most diverse agricultural parishes in the state. Some 165,000 acres of land are used to farm cotton, sugarcane, soybeans, corn, milo, wheat, cattle, hay, vegetables, rice, crawfish and pecans.