Rip Van Winkle Gardens on Jefferson Island

Entrance

Joseph Jefferson, built a hunting lodge on Jefferson Island in 1870. He was an actor and played the part of Rip Van Winkle on stage over 4500 times. That is where the island got it's name: Rip Van Winkle Gardens on Jefferson Island.

We arrived at the Gardens just in time for lunch. 

Gift shop and dining room.

We walked through the gift shop and into the dining room only to see every table but one taken.  A tour bus had just arrived.  We were assured they were taken care of and we would receive our food in a timely manner.  Our food did arrive quickly.  Mark ordered crawfish etouffee.  It was very good.  I don’t like to try new foods so I had a chicken panini.  It was very good too.

The dining area is a glassed-in porch sitting in a grove of ancient live oaks with views of the gardens and Lake Peigneur.

While waiting for our lunch one of the many peacocks that roam the gardens walked by.

Did I mention there are a lot of peacocks?

We paid our entry fee to walk the gardens and to view the Jefferson mansion.

The Joseph Jefferson Mansion was built in 1870 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jefferson mansion

Tours are every hour and it turned out that the big bus group had the next tour to themselves.  We didn’t want to wait almost 2 hours before the next available tour so we decided to skip it.  We really weren’t disappointed since we have toured many of these types of homes before.

We spent some time walking around the 15 acres of semi-tropical gardens.

There are many fountains.

We found another Grover Cleveland tree!!  Remember the first Cleveland tree we saw at the Jungle Gardens after the Tabasco tour?

Another Cleveland Tree.

Grover Cleveland would visit Mr. Jefferson and nap under the massive old oak.

Jefferson Island, like Avery Island, is not an island.  It is another salt dome.  But, this salt dome has a disastrous past. 

On November 20, 1980, a 14-inch drill bit from a Texaco oil drilling rig on the surface of Lake Peigneur cut through a working salt mine 4,000 feet below.

The Jefferson Island salt mine had been operating under the lake since the early 1900s.  There were dozens of shafts going several thousand feet down.

The lake itself averaged about 10 feet deep and contained about 1 billion gallons of fresh water.

Experts believe that either there was a miscalculation in where the drill rig was placed, or the drill angled off in the wrong direction. Whatever the case, the drill bit was some 400 feet off course when it entered the mine.

Over the next few hours, the entire lake drained into the salt mine. In addition to the oil rig, over a dozen barges were also sucked into the maelstrom including the house of J. Lyle Bayless, the owner of Rip Van Winkle gardens at that time. The chimney of that home is still visible in the lake. 

After walking the grounds for a while we headed to Rip’s Rookery outside the entrance to the gardens

The Rookery.

Mark took a few pictures but the afternoon light wasn’t great for pictures.  We came back the next morning to much better light and many more birds!

Next time:  Pictures from the rookery and an amazing video.