Images of the graceful white bird adorn the town. Statues sit at the entrances to the park and cemetery and in front of houses. A swan is depicted on the town's welcome sign, and they are painted on the water tower and on windows of businesses and the museum. La Cygne's annual festival is the Swanfest, which takes place the second Saturday of every September. Founded in 1869, the town took its name from the nearby river, the Marais des Cygnes, which is a French translation of an Osage appellation meaning "marsh of the swans."