Avery Island's Railroad with Dr. Shane Bernard

Avery Island's Railroad with Dr. Shane Bernard

First a technical note. Dr. Bernard's text was cut from a Word
Document which caused so many problems, some of which
are not corrected yet. Internet Explorer users may notice
a size difference in the fonts. To correct this, change the zoom
setting under "View" on your browser if it is bothersome. S.

Let me say a few things before we get into Dr. Bernard's guided
tour of Avery Island's abandoned railroad. On a lark I headed
down to Avery Island Highway (La.329) one afternoon trying
to understand the rail layout south of New Iberia and westward
to Delcambre. I saw where the rails headed off to Delcambre at
I&V Junction. I had no way of knowing what a personal discovery
this was. I'd been to Avery Island when, as a child, my parents
had taken me there when some uncle from California showed up.
I sat around and was pretty bored while they ooh'd about the
plants and flowers. The Japanese or Chinese pagoda was pretty
cool and that was it. No, I also remember the nesting area for the
birds over the water. If this place was a salt mine, the owner definitely
had another, non business, side. I know there was talk of the pepper
factory, but we didn't fool with that.

Fast forward a million years. Being that long since my last visit,
I'd at least go to the gate and peer in. I'd follow the active rails
down the highway. Could they still be active to the mine and
pepper factory?

No. They are cut off short of the marsh.



Oh, well, I'd still check out the gate area.



That was it. I took a few shots of the trestle and knew I'd never
know the rest of the story unless I happened upon an article in
Train Magazine or something similar on line, end of quest.

Then I got a note in my quest book from a guy named Shane. It simply
stated the origins of the place name , "Bob Acres", which is just east of
the Delcambre bridge. I should have responded but didn't. Later, a
visitor named Rufus also signed the guest book mentioning that Shane
had signed it earlier.

I reflected that I'd been caught with my manners down not responding
to a visitor who actually communicated and now there was another one.

Rufus said that he was a amateur writer doing a history of Vermillion
Parish and he wanted to use my picture of I&V Junction. I was floored
that someone actually asked. I know this story is spell binding and
thankfully for you, it gets a little blurry at this point. The end result is
that Dr. Shane Bernard has stepped off Avery Island and presented me with
40 pictures of his walkabout synced to commentary. All I had to do was
match the numbers and bingo, I have the lusted for article I hoped
to find in Train Magazine or online. Not a chance.

One other result, I got to peer into the world of true adventure historians,
the real Indiana Jones types. These guys pickax history.

In the following you will see {sm:......} from time to time. That's me making a comment.
After each explanation is the picture to which it refers.
If there is a second or third picture after that, I added it.

As promised, here's Dr. Bernard:

My name is Shane K. Bernard, Ph.D., and I'm the historian and curator for McIlhenny Company and Avery Island, Inc., located on Avery Island, Louisiana.

[Image 1] Avery Island is a salt dome in lower Iberia Parish, Louisiana. It's not an island in the traditional sense; that is, it's not surrounded by an open body of water. In fact, it's located about 3 miles inland from the nearest open body of water. But it is surrounded on all sides by wetlands -- either grassy salt marsh, wooded cypress swamp, or slow-moving, muddy bayous.

{sm: I supplemented this map because it was in color. The blue

horizontal lines signify marsh and it gives a little geologic explanation.

Thanks to Everett Lueck of the Southern Forest Heritage Museum

for it}{He gives me 50c each time I mention the museum.}

{Notice the rails coming down on La.329 and onto the island. That

is Dr.Bernard's walk. Missing is the gravel pit spur. His map is at

the end of the walk when he mentions the pit.}

{This is the face of Avery as you approach the island.}




[Image 2] The railroad came to Avery Island in 1883, primarily to reach the Island's salt mine. The railroad also serviced the factory that produced the world-famous Tabasco brand pepper sauce. It, too, was located on Avery Island.

[Image #3] I took most of the photographs in this series on restricted private property with the permission of the landowners, McIlhenny Company & Avery Island, Inc. (my employers).

{sm....This is the old historical marker. It has been replaced}

[Image #4] The railroad reached Avery Island by crossing this trestle bridge over Bayou Petite Anse (actually the confluence of Bayou Leleu and Stumpy Bayou, which in turn flows into the nearby Petite Anse). I took this photo around 2000.

[Image #5] This is what the trestle bridge looks like today (May 2010). Hurricane Rita washed away the top part of the trestle in 2005. Because the railroad no longer serviced the Island by that time (the rails having been ripped up in 2002), no effort was made to repair the bridge. (By 2000 the salt mine used eighteen-wheelers and barges to transport salt; McIlhenny Company likewise used eighteen-wheelers.)

[Image #6] Here is Engine 455 crossing the same trestle bridge. This photo was taken in the early to mid-1950s; a diesel engine replaced Engine 455 around 1955.

{sm.....Rufus had this to add about the road that parallels the tracks:

Something else that your map reminded me about. That real straight stretch of 329 right before Avery Island was constructed in the 1850's by Irish immigrant labor. They made the roadbed from the dirt from the drainage ditch they had to dig. The road was built so that salt could be transported off the island across the marsh and join the dirt road leading to New Iberia.

During the Civil War, they put planks over the road so that they could transport cannons onto the island for defense. Also they were transporting big loads of salt to New Iberia where the Confederate Army had a large factory where they produced salt cured beef for the forces. Shane said that the locals still refer to this section of 329 as Plank Road.}

[Image #7] Although Engine 455 ended up in a Houston scrapyard, someone at Avery Island salvaged its headlamp, which now sits in the McIlhenny Company & Avery Island, Inc., Archives.

[Image #8] Here is a circa 1955 photo of the diesel engine that replaced Engine 455. As you can see, the diesel engine is crossing the trestle bridge that leads onto the Island. (The boy in the photo is reminding the railroad workers that they are entering private property; I have been told that this ceremony occurred annually for legal reasons.)

[Image #9] A few hundred yards down Stumpy Bayou are the trestle bridge parts washed away by Hurricane Rita.

[Image #10] Note the marine life that had grown on the trestle. (My foot is in the image for scale.)

[Image #11] Here is the rail bed -- the elevated whitish hump running between and parallel to the grass and bamboo -- as it looks today, heading south on Avery Island toward the salt mine.

[Image #12] I took this photograph looking south on the same section of rail bed.

[Image #13] Moving south, I found a small section of track still in place at the entrance to the McIlhenny Company corporate office.

[Image #14] Right past the corporate office stands the McIlhenny station sign. There was never an actual station here, however, because the Tabasco factory itself was the "station.” (The older part of our corporate office served as the Tabasco sauce factory from 1905 until around 1980.) Incidentally, the station sign that appears in this photo is a new replica. The original sign shows up in the next image below; it is now preserved in the Archives.

[Image #15] In this circa 2000 image of the same spot, you can make out the spur (see arrow) leading from the main line toward the Tabasco factory.

[Image #16] This is looking at the station sign from the opposite direction. The yellow lines on this present-day photo show where the main line and spur (at right) would have been located.

[Image #17] Following the spur toward the old Tabasco factory leads to some kind of device on the ground (which I assume is related to the railroad). The yellow line shows where the side track would have continued. As you can see, it would have gone right between the two buildings (where an enclosed walkway now stands). There the spur ended.

[Image #18] This photo, taken around 1980, shows a diesel engine on the track between the two buildings. Tabasco-related material would have been loaded/unloaded from the train at this location.

[Image #19] A close-up image of the device that I assume to be railroad-related.

[Image #20] Heading south again on the Island, the rail bed passes this old sign with the number "9.”

[Image #21] Moving farther south the two rails became six rails. (Note the third set of rails below the arrow.) I was told that the extra set was a siding. This picture was taken in 2000.

[Image #22] Here is the same spot, more or less, during the railroad’s demolition in 2002.

[Image #23] Here's another photo from the same area, showing the excavator and bulldozer that tore up the track; note the scrap in the large dumpster.

[Image #24] This is the section of track, but looking in the opposite direction (north).

[Image #25] This is what that same area looks like today.

[Image #26] A close inspection of that spot reveals signs of its previous purpose -- in this case, a railroad spike stuck in a rail plate.

[Image #27] A few feet away is a rotting railroad tie that the demolition crew evidently forgot to pick up

[Image #28] This switch, photographed in 2002 on the same stretch of railroad, is no longer to be found.

[Image #29] We're now getting close to the Avery Island salt mine, which I doubt was ever so crowded with trains as depicted in this circa 1940 advertisement.

"We are pleased to announce the completion of our new Evaporated
Salt Refinery at Avery Island, Louisiana. It is a modern place in every
respect and will produce Evaporated Salt of the highest quality. This
facility makes it possible for the buyers of salt to be supplied with mixed
carloads of both Evaporated and Rock Salt, thereby meeting all requirements
of their trade and at the same time carry reduced floor stocks. The facsimiles
shown herein will convey some idea of the new variety of grades and packages
we are prepared to furnish".
{sm. I think I have that copied correctly}

[Image #30] The rail bed reaches the salt mine and runs into this fence; note the salt mine structure in the background.

[Image #31] Looking back northward from the same spot reveals this presumably railroad-related sign reading "D.”

[Image #32] Here is a 1899 photo of the salt mine with box cars present.

[Image #33] This circa 1930 aerial photo shows the salt mine; I've added yellow lines next to the railroad tracks. Note a spur leading off the main line.

[Image #34] This circa 2000 photo shows the railroad as it continued onto the salt mine property. I don't know if these rails still exist today because I did not go onto the salt mine lease. (Perhaps another day and, of course, only with permission of the salt mine lessee.)

{sm: Since the writing of this piece, Dr. Bernard has sought to clarify
which spur rails went to the OLD SALT MINE and which went to the
GRAVEL PIT. Right here and now, instead of trying to tweak his
original theory and having to correct my corrections, I'm going to
quote his note to me, these are his confirmed findings. If there is
an update, this will be amended.}

Dr.Bernard:
"OK, here is what what the elder member of the McIlhenny family told
me today by e-mail:

"You are quite right about the spurs. The one that takes off [just outside
the salt mine lease] went to the old mine . . . and the other [on the salt
mine lease] went to the Gravel Pit. . . ."

Dr. Bernard continues, "Well, I was not quite right, as I had the spurs
backwards: So you can change my text on your blog to state that the
"un-rusted" set of spur rails led to the old salt mine, which collapsed
in the early 1890s. And that the really rusty, decrepit set of spur rails
led to the sand/gravel pit".

{sm: I had led him to believe thatthe rusted ones went to the salt mine
since my name is Spock, the logical Enterprise crew member.}

[Image #35] A close-up circa 2000 image of the rails on the salt mine lease. These could be rails from the 19^th century or early 20^th century, given their decrepit condition. Most of the rails ripped up in 2002 appeared in good condition -- nothing at all like these rails.

[Image #36] Backing up a little, I found the rails that made

up the spur shown in the circa 1930 aerial photo {33}.

[Image #37] A close-up image of the spur rail as it appears today -- almost buried beneath the topsoil.

[Image #38] The spur rails lead into thick woods.

[Image #39] This is where the spur rails once led: A gravel and sand pit on Avery Island. It shut down in 1917.

Thanks to Steve for permitting me to share these photos on his blog!

Shane K. Bernard, Ph.D.

May 13, 2010

Avery Island, Louisiana

{sm: click the map to enlarge to see the rail and island layout}



Added Info:
[Image #40] Update of 19 May 2010: With help from others it's been determined for sure that spur #1 on this aerial photo is the spur that led to the old salt mine (dismantled after the mine caved-in at that location in the 1890s) and spur #2 is the spur that led to the sand/gravel pit. This photo is interesting because it shows both spurs in the same image. Again, the rails that make up spur #1 remain in good condition as of last week; while the rails that make up spur #2 were in terrible shape when I last saw them several years ago.