Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-09-12
PETITE ANsE ISLE.

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Denaorest's Monthly. g.. ~. ~ .a.s> r..
PETITE ANSE ISLE.
A Queer Island In Southern Louisiana and
Its Marvellous Salt Mine.
Apparently without cause there rises
out of the marsh lands bordering the
Gulf Of Mexico, west of the Mississippi
river, q cluster of hills, forming what
is known as Petite Anse Isle. It is the
only high land to be found in the
southern part of Louisiana, and it will
ALWAYS remain wonder that such an
elevation should appear in so unex-
pected a place. To realize that it is
an island is hard until one tries to ap-
proach it, and then, especially if the
wind is in the right direction, to flood
the marshes with gulf water, you will
think it the islandest island you ever
saw. There is but one way of reach
ing it, and that is by dislocated
plank road, some parts of which
ar9 buried in mud while in
places planks linger patiently about
auctuating with the tide. It is an ex-
ceedingly pleasant sensation which one
experiences when the nigh" horse all
but disappears in some unforeseen alli-
gator "wallow," especially as the road
is narrow and a deep canal thanking
either side waits to receive those I'M
able to keep the straight and narrow
way.
Not content with the absurdity of it's
location, Petite Anse is wonderful in
it's composition. Dig down anywhere
twenty-seven or thirty feet and you
will strike white salt ninety-nine and
half per cent. pure, the purest
found on the face of the globe.
Dig down two hundred feet and you
will still find salt, and when you have
dug thus far you will know as much
about the extent of this big salt rock
as any one. Possibly it extends two
hundred feet deeper, but no one knows.
Twenty-Five years ago Deacon Keller,
as honest an old darby as ever
served a master faithfully, was sent
down into an old we'll to clean it
out, and in so doing struck his spade
against a rock, which proved to DO
salt. To-day the Avery brothers,
owners of the Petite Anse Island, re-
ceive a royalty of from $50 to 800 a
day from the New Iberia Salt Mine
Company, and Deacon Keller is cat
yo' services, sab. Use po' ole man,
but I'm trabbling de road ter Zion
mighty libely.' 80
The main shaft to the mine is 100
feet deep, radiating from which are
several immense caverns varying in
height from ten to sixty feet, grottoes
with solid salt roof and walls. Do not
expect the walls to sparkle. The
miners lamps have smoked until q
scurf has formed which shuts in the
glittering salt. Only where blast has
been made recently does it look pure
It is mine that can be visited in a
very short time satisfactorily, there
being little variety to the salt, and
nothing to watch but the min
ers working with drill and pick
by the light of the little lamps they
wear in their caps, or the lights
which twinkle in tho distance, or 90
fitting by in q spectral manner. Al
though the guide assures you that the
roof is sufficiently thick to prevent it's
caving, and that, even should it fail,
you would be we'll preserved, it seems
good to be shot up the shaft in the
elevator to the pure air. A conglom-
Grafton of buildings of well-assorted
sizes and shapes, most of them filed
with an endless variety of wheels and
chains and belts and pulleys, consti-
tute the mills. The salt is first hoisted
to the top of high tower from whence
it goes down through a series of
crushers and sifters, finally to be
bagged up on the main floor and
loaded into the cars. Buildings and
workmen are we'll seasoned, clouds of
fine salt filling the air and giving
every thing a hoary appearance; and
even outside the mill clouds of salt fill
the air, killing or stunting vegetation
in the immediate neighborhood.- Cor.
Springfield Mass Republican.
Housework Made Easy.
Many housekeepers never seem to
think that there is any Such thing as