I promised to write about these gardens, located on Jefferson Island in southern Louisiana. This is one of the five salt dome islands which include nearby Avery Island, the home of Tabasco Sauce and the MciIhenny Family. Joseph Jefferson bought Jefferson Island with the proceeds of his acting career. Without providing the entire biography, he came from a family of actors and he sought a “property” that he could make his own and tour with. He met Washington Irving and decided that the Rip Van Winkle story would be that property. He made his costume and properties first and then set out to write a script. He produced the show and took it on the road across the country playing to large and happy audiences for years. He became world renowned for his depiction of Rip Van winkle. Eventually he had homes in Massachusetts, Florida and Louisiana. This was his winter home and he loved the view from the front porch.
View from the Porch with Carol
Eventually he died and his children sold the place to John Lyle Bayless who developed a salt mine in the salt dome. The salt was considered the finest quality table salt available. His son J Lyle Bayless sold the salt mine to Diamond Crystal and developed the gardens, eventually building himself a new more “modern” house on the adjacent lake.
Nearby Texaco was looking for oil under the lake in 1980. They made a miscalculation and put a 14″ drill bit through the roof of a section of the salt mine creating a major sinkhole. The results can be seen on this
Youtube (runs about 9 minutes) The new house that had been lived in for 30 days went into the lake.
Lyle continued to develop the gardens and created a foundation to own the property and preserve it. The son of the gardener who developed the gardens continues to maintain them. We took plenty of pictures, but the
web site is worth seeing. Be sure to check out the recent history as it is far more complex than I have written. They had plenty of time and their choice of light to photograph the gardens and the peacocks. But they did not get this picture:
Its after Carol’s ankle!
