Erath, LA

Erath is a Vermilion Parish town seven miles east of Abbeville and about 26 miles south of Lafayette, with the Acadian Museum giving the place a doorway into local history. The town takes August Erath's name; he came from Switzerland, worked in New Orleans breweries, and later built a brewery in New Iberia. Erath's Fourth of July celebration dates to 1936, when it began as a fundraiser for the high school, and it still sits on the town calendar. Just outside the town's residential streets, Henry Hub marks Erath's place in the North American natural-gas network. Erath is bayou-country history with an Acadian museum and a gas junction in the same frame.