Newspapers started reporting that the eclipse was coming months beforehand, giving advice on the best places to travel to catch the “path of totality.” Scientists prepared their experiments, people prepared their travel plans, businesses prepared for a bonanza, and everyone sought a glass they could look through without going blind. And, as the event started to unfold, all the world seemed to stop their business and watch. It was eclipse mania on June 8, 1918.
On Louisiana highway 1, just south of the leeway bridge in Jefferson parish, not far from where the road ends, is a marker for the Cheniere Caminada cemetery, all that remains of a once thriving town that disappeared virtually overnight.