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Avery Island, part of a group of salt dome formations in Louisiana, is famous for producing Tabasco hot sauce. It is home to a working factory, salt mine, botanical garden, and bird sanctuary. The island is owned by the McIlhenny family and is a popular tourist site.
Avery Island is a salt dome in the southern state of Louisiana, famous for producing Tabasco hot sauce. Located west of the city of New Orleans, Avery Island is part of a group of salt dome formations collectively called the Five Islands, and is a popular tourist site in addition to the site of a working factory and salt mine. Visitors to Avery Island pay a small toll to enter the island and may pay additional fees for some of the activities offered on the island.
Technically, Avery Island isn’t an island at all, as it isn’t entirely surrounded by water. The island is instead composed of a massive deposit of salt left by the slow evaporation of an inland sea. Avery Island rises above the surrounding landscape, making it easy to spot, and is surrounded by bays, marshes and lowlands. During times of flooding in the Louisiana Delta, Avery Island was threatened by rising waters.
The island is owned by the McIlhenny family, who have been making Tabasco since 1868 on site, using peppers grown on the island. Today, peppers continue to be produced on the island for the popular hot sauce, and those peppers are also used as the seed for off-site grown peppers. In addition to being used for the production of hot sauce, Avery Island is home to a salt mine, which has been operated by the Cargill company since 2008, and oil and natural gas are also recovered from the mine, making Avery Island quite a lucrative venture.
Avery Island also has an extensive botanical garden, with specimens from around the world. Many visitors enjoy strolling through the garden to see the rich assortment of plants, and they can also see the bird sanctuary on the island, which is home to the most famous herons. The Tabasco factory is open for tours, for people who want to see the salsa-making process from start to finish, and visitors can purchase a variety of Tabasco-branded products at the factory.
Some members of the McIlhenny family, along with some factory employees, also call Avery Island home. Island residents have a short commute to work, but can also enjoy the island’s natural beauty year-round; the McIlhenny family has worked very hard on conservation projects on the island, to ensure that future generations can enjoy them.
In addition to Avery Island, the Five Islands include Weeks Island, Jefferson Island, Cote Blanche and Belle Isle.
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