Hi there. I'm a Lafayette native but I live in Houston Texas now. It's a relatively easy driving distance between Houston and Lafayette. When I turned fifty years old, I found things that seemed unimportant, or, not relevant to my life, seemed very important all of a sudden. As a child I would ride my bicycle around on St. John Street, Lafayette Street, Vermilion and the like, never realizing I was riding on the original Vermilionville street grid that was laid out by Jean Mouton.

   In preparation for my then, up-coming 50th birthday, and with it, "absolute confirmation of old fartdom," I figured I might ought to learn some of this, old fart, stuff. I started last January with an initial trip to the Lafayette Public Library. I looked through several books and that's when I found the original street grid. Wow! Apparently our founder laid out what he considered at the time to be, the most important street first. Named for his patron saint, St. John the Evangelist. (Ten feet wider than the rest). The second  street was named after George Washington, followed by the Marquis De Lafayette.  The names of the other north and south streets further to the east, weren't so etched in stone They could be subject to change, depending on whether this individual's politics were favored by Jean Mouton at the time. Cutting in east and west,  he laid down Vermilion Street on the northern side of the grid, Main Street in the middle, and Second Street. (Now Convent). And that was pretty much it. That eureka moment set me off and running. And that's when I saw all those city directories, telephone books.and the rest is, oh, I can't say it.

   My grandfather was a conductor on the Southern Pacific Sunset Route. And I have always been fascinated by the train depot in Lafayette. Watched its decline, its being badly burned, and now, looking like a great train depot at the Rosa Parks transportation center. Standing in front of the depot in the sixties, I remember very well the three railroad tracks in front of the depot with the Southern Pacific freight operations on the other side. To my two o'clock position would  a huge Tonka Toy wonderland with a giant sand pile and conveyer belt to climb on. A veritable death trap to any modern child but merely playground equipment for us kids of the sixties. I remember sitting on my bike at the underpass waiting for the three o'clock train from New Orleans. I'd watch the people arriving and departing, wondering where they were going and where they had been. Sigh. So it's safe to say, that railroads will be a constant subject in our get togethers. Along with the plantations, how they were divided, and of course the evolution of the downtown street grid. There's the "additions" and all those long gone businesses and the stories that might be dug up. Also I am ravenously going through Advertiser archives, and the stuff I'm finding is nothing short of amazing. In my column I'd like to open up discussions about the things that I have found about Vermilionville and Lafayette history and pick the brains of readers who know things that I don't, and of course share things I have found. And that's what I'd like to do today.

  I've been left waiting for the Amtrak Sunset Limited for many hours on more than one occassion. The tardiness usually occurs eastbound coming in from Los Angeles since it has more time to accumulate delay. From New Orleans it's arrival times in Lafayette are usually closer to schedule. Amtrak attributes this to the fact that the tracks are owned by Union Pacific between L. A. and Lake Charles, with the rails between Lake Charles and New Orleans by the BNSF Railway Company. They have started tracking their delay causes and posting them on their website detailing where and why the delays have occured. It seems to have improved their on-time performance.

   Of course, I'm sure we all know that before it was the the Amtrak Sunset Limited, it was the Southern Pacific Sunset Route. As early as 1874. So if it's currently 1869, and we're in Vermilionville, we'll be waiting for more than a just a few hours for that three o'clock train. How much longer will we have to wait?

   To give us a hint, I dug up the following as it appeared in Vermilionville's weekly newspaper, the Lafayette Advertiser, on January 23, 1869. 140 years ago today. And yes, it was called the Lafayette Advertiser when we were still officially known as Vermilionville.

          THE OPELOUSAS, HOUSTON AND PACIFIC RAILROAD