US Trends

where was where the crawdads sing filmed

The movie Where the Crawdads Sing was filmed primarily in Louisiana, especially around New Orleans and the surrounding coastal wetlands, even though the story is set in North Carolina.

Main filming locations

  • New Orleans, Louisiana – Production was based in and around New Orleans, which provided access to both city streets and nearby marshes.
  • Houma, Louisiana – Streets in Houma stood in for Barkley Cove, the fictional coastal town in the film.
  • Lake Pontchartrain area – Marsh and waterfront scenes were shot around Lake Pontchartrain, including Fontainebleau State Park and Fairview-Riverside State Park, which doubled as Kya’s marsh home surroundings.
  • St. Bernard Parish Courthouse, Chalmette – Used for the key courtroom sequences in Kya’s trial.

Quick Scoop (story-style)

Picture the windswept marshes and sleepy town of Barkley Cove the way you saw them on screen: misty mornings, weather-beaten docks, and endless reeds shifting with the tide. Those landscapes look like North Carolina in the story, but in reality the crew built that entire world in coastal Louisiana, where the heat, storms, and sprawling wetlands gave them the wild, moody atmosphere they needed.

For Barkley Cove’s main street, filmmakers transformed Lafayette Street in Houma with vintage cars, 1960s storefronts, and extras in period clothing so it felt like a Southern town frozen in time. Kya’s marsh life came alive along the shores and wetlands near Lake Pontchartrain, where state parks offered tangled trees, quiet backwaters, and remote pockets that could pass for her secluded home. Even the tense courtroom drama was rooted in a real historic building: the St. Bernard Parish Courthouse, dressed back into its early-20th- century look for Kya’s trial.

Key facts at a glance

  • The story is set in fictional Barkley Cove, North Carolina.
  • The film was shot in Louisiana: New Orleans, Houma, and multiple locations around Lake Pontchartrain.
  • Marsh and swamp scenes mostly used state parks like Fontainebleau and Fairview-Riverside.
  • Courtroom scenes took place at the historic St. Bernard Parish Courthouse in Chalmette.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.