box_camera | Jefferson Island, LA (Reply)

I've lived 20 minutes down LA-14 from Jefferson Island for 3 years, but never made it out there until now. We're having some warm spring weather after an exceptionally cold March, and the island contains a beautiful public gardens (same as Avery Island). Like most of the "islands" around here, it's actually a giant salt dome that rises above the flat landscape, although this one actually does have water partially surrounding it, a saltwater lake called Lake Peigneur. It used to be a much smaller freshwater lake, but in 1980 Texaco drilled too far down and punched through to the salt mine under the lake. The suction as the mine filled with water from the lake reversed the flow of the Delcambre Canal and started pulling in saltwater from Vermilion Bay. When you stand on the dock, you can see a chimney from a house that used to be on dry land sticking out of the water, and old telephone poles.

Joseph Jefferson House, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

Joseph Jefferson was a 19th century stage actor, he bought the entire island and built a vacation home there.

Japanese teahouse, originally uploaded by pinstripe_bindi.

There are lots of Asian elements to the gardens. This Japanese teahouse is apparently just for show, as there was no way, that I could see, to get inside. The porch is several feet off the ground and there's no staircase! That's dumb.