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Dave Trips: Old Spanish Trail in Iberia Parish

Take The Slow Road and Enjoy!
Posted at 6:00 AM, Sep 27, 2019
and last updated 2019-09-27 17:01:58-04

We all want the smooth wide open road. More lanes, less traffic...a straight shot to our destination with any stops. As Highway 90 continues to be upgraded, we forget the old road that was referred to as the Old Spanish Trail. A highway that went coast to coast. Thriving towns along the road, are now bypassed.

In Iberia Parish, starting at the St. Mary parish line, drift into Jeanerette. Take a visit to the Jeanerette Museum and see how 200 years of the Sugar Industry has shaped this region. Grab some hot french bread at LeJeunes, and watch how the roadway winds along the Bayou Teche with never ending sugar cane fields. Live Oaks draped with moss line the roadway. Before the highway was there, steamboats would cruise up and down the Teche. Imagine the stories some of these old oaks could tell.

Look closely, places that were once thriving farms, where generations of families lived, are now being absorbed by nature. Structures that have stood the test of time sitting for you to see what once was. Soon to disappear.

Eventually you'll reach the Queen City of the Teche. New Iberia. At one time, the Old Spanish trail was just a dirt road. The Gebert Oak, one of the Charter Oaks of the Live Oak Society, still stands proud, even though worn by the elements.

There are areas of Main Street that look almost exactly the same. Including near the Shadow's on the Teche Antebellum home. From the late 1800s, things have changed a lot, but there are still familiar locations in this shot from the 60s. Leaving New Iberia, the road leaves the bayou and runs along the railroad. On your way out of Iberia Parish, make a stop at Spanish Lake!