Abbeville was up in arms in December 1954, over a national magazine article in which community leaders claimed the town, and all of Vermilion Parish, were portrayed as “a mucky swamp” inhabited only by those strong enough to wrestle an alligator, which they often had to do.
The article, entitled “Mysterious Marshes,” was written by Ben Lucien Burman and published in Collier’s Weekly Mag...