Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-22
copyright. 1917, by Frank C. Carpentero
AVERY ISLAND.

tCopyright, 1917, by Frank C. Carpenter.)
AVERY ISLAND.
~LIMB into the airplane of your
In imagination and fly with me to
VI the northern coast of the Gulf
~ of Mexico. Sight your machine
for point about 125 miles west OF
New Orleans and about eight miles {.
south of New Iberia on the Southern
Pacific railway. Pick out of the
marshy plain the hill known as Avery
Island and drop gently down SO as not
TO brighten the birds. We are now in
Longfellow's "Evangeline" country.
and In one of the great bird homes of
the world. What is more important.
we are right above a mountain OF the
purest rock salt. 1t contains enough
Of the mineral to salt the tails OF all
the birds upon earth, to preserve all
the meat and fish and other 1000
products We shall send to our allies In
Europe. II contains enough to furnish
all the salt need for munitions and
fertilizers and other Industrial uses,
and enough to make countless millions
of statues like that OF Mrs. Lot on the
shores of the Dead sea.
We have come here to investigate
the salt but our way to 1t is through
the homes of the birds. and we VIII
see them in passing. One OF the own
ers of Avery Island is Mr.. John A. Nc
Ilhenny, president of the civil service
commission. whose chief hobby Is the
preservation of the game birds OF the
United States He has a preserve on
the hill known as Avery Island. and
100000 wild fowl come here every sea-
son to breed Not far away Is Marsh
Island. which Mrs. Russell Sage has
turned into a winter home for the birds
1t has about 10000 acres. and Its wild
fowl run into the millions.
We leave our airplaine at McIlhenny
Station and go by great ponds Enclosed
in wire netting. on the shores Of which
$4,000 ducks of many varieties are
Matching their eggs. The nests are old
cracker boxes covered with brush. We
see geese and other wild fowl as
pass the preserve and make our way
Up the mound or hill to the tall shaft
house which stands over the salt mine.
Here We enter the elevator and are
dropped down into the darkness. which
is SO thick that IT can almost be felt.
We have descended 500 feet. and all
the way has been through solid rock
salt AT the bottom we walk out into
galleries walled with salt and make
our way through one vast chamber
after another. all cut OUT of this crystal
white rock. The galleries are wide
that two Pullman trains could be run
through any one of them without
touching. The ceilings are sixty feet
high. and each of the great rooms has
cubic capacity equal TO that OF
fve-story house There are scores of
such rooms. and they are connected by
railroads. upon which the pure salt.
which has been blasted down with dy-
Mantle and broken up with picks.
chisels and sledges. is carried upon
ears to the shaft.
There comes a car now. 1t contains
three tons of this crystal white rock.
The white shows out in contrast with
the bare brown skin of the halfnaked
negro who is driving the mule More
than one million tons of salt have al
ready been taken out OF this mine. 1t
has been blasted out of these mighty
chambers, the roofs of which are upheld
by posts of solid salt forty feet thick
The mine is a vast checker board OF
such rooms. the squares Of which are
these chambers with the posts at tho
corners.
Now stop and look about you. We
seem to be in a palace of silver. the
walls of which sparkle with diamonds.
The white crystals throw back the light
and everywhere we look the walls glis-
ten and shine. We walk slowly. The
carpet of this vast subterranean palace
is this thick layer of ground salt. 1t is
We sink into the salt halfway to our
shoe tops. We cannot walk fast.
Here is spot where they have Just
finished blasting. Some of the Jumps
weighs a half a dozen tons. Some of
these Jumps are sold to the ranchers of
Texas and neighboring states. A chunk
OF salt Weighing a half ton almost is
dropped down into field for the cattle
TO lick. During the cotton exposition
of about a generation ago they showed
a statute OF Lots wife carved out OF a
: single block Of salt from this mine That
4 statute was ten feet in height but Il could
easily have been 100 feet high and pro-
portionately large in other directions.
During my trip through this salt mine
] was accompanied by Mr.. Dan Avery.
the owner and the son, think. Of the