Columns

In early 1949 people were talking again about finally building a road to Pecan Island, the isolated chenier south of Abbeville, but nobody was taking bets that it would actually happen.
People had talked about a road through the marsh since the 1930s, when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was looking for “make-work” projects for men who lost their jobs during the Depression. That road didn’t get built, nor had several other attempts fared any better, and a 2½ hour boat ride was still the only way to get to the place.

It was big and long-anticipated news when the papers proclaimed in the middle of March 1931 that a newly paved section of the Old Spanish Trail had been opened near Jennings, and that paving work was all but complete from the Atchafalaya to the Sabine.
The road, so named because it connected the old Spanish towns of St. Augustine, Florida, and San Diego, California, ran through Morgan City, Franklin, Jeanerette, New Iberia, Lafayette, Scott, Rayne, Crowley, Jennings, Welsh, Lake Charles, Sulphur, and Vinton, before crossing into Texas at Orange.

Print newspapers are still the primary way that tens of millions of Americans receive information about their communities and the world. They are also the way that many people find out about job opportunities. While we assume that everyone has an internet connection, the fact is that many areas of the country have limited or no internet service. According to the Federal Communications Commission, nearly 40 percent of Americans living in rural areas lack access to fixed broadband internet.