The last gap in the Old Spanish Trail
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.