•FRANKLIN. Sugar cane section; large refinery. The highway stiil follows
ulil southern scenes. COMMEKLIAL HULI.u fills early.
McKerall Motor Car Co., opp. Court House, has com-nlcie automobile service ami tourist information. Ph. o.
CIIAItENTON. Village. Grand Lake, batliing and fishing near.
JK VNERETTE. Sugar, rice and corn. Table salt is mined near here at G50 fr. depths. Fresh and salt-water fishing ami batliing. The Bayou Teciie is one of the most interesting waterways in America; all South Louisiana is filled with pleasant and unexpected scenes. fcVimlra—hafcej—^ Camp near Moresi’s foundry.
•new IBERIA. The Evangeline country. The highway leaves the Bayou Teche here. Sugar, rice, cotton, tobasco peppers and salt mines. Wild life sanctuaries southward toward the gulf. HOTEL FREDERIC, modern, good restaurant. Inf—at Hotel Frederic.
CADE. Leave Old Spanish Trail here for St. Martinville, 0 mi. north.
ST. MARTINVILLE
The old Acndlan town where Evangeline lived is the quaint center for many little journeys. On the bank of the Teche la the spreading live oak where Evangeline and her people landed; near by are the Evangeline home, church and other sacred landmarks. The surrounding towns and country are interesting. Bayou Teche Is on a southerly course here, and these arc the western highlands of the Atclinfalaya Basin, the ancient outlet of the Mississippi River. The Acadians were exiled from Nova Scotia in 1755, Herded in old ships, families and friends torn asunder, some were landed in Maryland, some in Louisiana, most of them to become wanderers searching for one another. After three years the Maryland group worked south seeking their ' Tost ones. The French had established Ft. Attnknjtfis. in 175G at the present St. Martinville. The Evangeline party reached At-takapas about 1700. Numerous graveled roads.
VOORI1IES HOTEL is a comfortable, homelike old southern place.
BROUSSARD. The three largest sugar mills in Louisiana are on the Oltl Spanish Trail; Raceland, Franklin and Broussard. The bagasse, the stalk after the cane juice has been pressed out, was formerly used as fuel, now is made into celotex for insulating material. Visitors are welcomed.
* LAFAYETTE. A commercial and transportation center and growing fast. Cotton, corn and rice production meet in this Parish and westward the interesting rice fields prevail, flooded in growing time. MOTEL GORDON leads. TERRACE HOTEL, 25 mis., clean, attractive. Camp space in grove on Vermilion Bayou. Inf.—Chamber of Commerce.
Billcaud Garage and Filling Station, very complete, day and night shop and road service.
RAYNE. Rice and cotton. The plains of soutliwesterr Louisiana are now a vast rice growing area. Wells 300 tc 400 ft. deep pump three to four million gallons of watei daily. The COMMERCIAL, good countrv Motel with Frenct cooking. Camp space.
C ROWLEY. The “Rice City of America.” As much rict is grown in Acadia Parish as in all California. A count} is called a parish in Louisiana. The largest rice area it the Lnited States is this Crowley district. When it was round in 1885 these prairies could he flooded artificially then drained and harvested with wheat-harvesting nm ciiinerv. men came from all states and large commercia development followed. Streams a foot in diameter ar< ceaselessly pumped from shallow wells but the main sup pi.v comes from the bayous and rivers. The network o canals, ditches and fields is best viewed from the top o n fi eir0St. ^aJ.ional Bank building. One mile west on th< —_ ‘-Pamsli frail is the rice experiment station that ha:
done so much to develop the rice industry of America. Visitors can learn many interesting things from Superintendent J. M. Jenkins.
EGAN HOTEL is best. The INN is new and attractive Camp, in town. 50c.
MERMENTAU RIVER. Store, country hotel, camp space. A beautiful river.
*JENNINGS. Another real American city developed by the rice industry; also fine staple cotton. Evangeline oil field G mi. east where one well made nearly 4,000,000 bbls. South 14 mi. is Lake Arthur and the village and the hunting club with its nation-wide membership, for south thru the Mermentau River are Grand Lake, Mallard Bay, a myriad of inlets, wild lands and marshes, and the Gulf of Mexico. The Lake Arthur Club has a preserve of 11,000 A. Eastward are the Rockefeller and' Sage wild life preserves facing the gulf for 75 mi. I-Iere lie the natural winter refuges of birds and their feeding grounds, and now the rice fields add to their joys. Ducks and geese in their season blacken the skies, these preserves are their protection. The Jennings Chamber of Commerce will gladly help Old Spanish Trail hunters or fishermen. TlteJ^p'Tlpi ARDEN-nicely UilWijhe/l and liked. TIieL^^^«^§:^g^HOTEL, at the lakot mis. only. Free
More ^IiIeage~^ta«b^rvj^e, day and night; also repairs, genuine Ford parts amTjjtficr service. C. E. Stackhouse, the owner, is attentive. l^missai^^»^ervice Sta. is good; Dunlop tires, Pan-Am Also wetlNUked.
WELSH. Rice, 'cotton, cattle and a nice little city. HOTEL ABBOTT, new, many rms. with bath. Nice free camp in park, south; shady, swimming pool.
*LAI\E CHARLES. A deep-water port and metropolis of Southwest Louisiana on Calcasieu River and Lake Charles. Fine residence city. Cotton, rice, cattle and general farming:	important	oil fields near. MAJESTIC
HOTEL, 100 rms., popular old southern type. Also CHEROKEE and RIG MAIDEN MOTELS, moderate. The OAKS, pleasant family hotel. Camp space near lake. Inf.—Association of Commerce.
CALCASIEU RIVER.
SULPHUR. Exhausted sulphur mines near; superheated steam forced to the sulphur beds far underground melted the sulphur and compressed air forced it to the surface. Large mines now south of Houston. Country hotel. Camp on OST at Ellenders Service Sta.
VINTON. 1S.000 A. of rice around Vinton—a million dollar crop. A center for four oil fields—Ged, 4 mi. south; Edgerly, 5% mi. east; Vinton Stark, 7 mi. north; Roxana, 12 mi.’ south. The oil fields are an interesting study. SHAW HOTEL, 32 rms. modern, good cooking; free car storage. Cabin camp 50c to $1.00. good. Inf.—J. N. Wether ill, at Calcasieu Bank.
LOUISIANA-TEXAS STATE LINE
Subine River.
The new bridge 3 mi. long was completed November 1927. The cost. $1,000,000, was shared by the Orange and the Lake Charles districts, the states of Louisiana and Texas, and Federal Aid funds. Many years spent struggling with the financial difficulties; then when the contractors began, floods and marshes, alligators and pests, sink^ holes and discouragements, had to be conquered. But this is the story of most of the Old Spanish ■ Trail construction, costs that were an acid test of faith, engineering that knew’ no defeat, builders equal to every demand.
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