Avery Island beckons visitors

From the unique feel of the South Louisiana marshes and bayous to the nature preserve inhabited by indigenous plants and animals, Avery Island, Louisiana is a beautiful place to visit.

Touring the visitor center and the pepper sauce factory is just one part of the Avery Island experience.

In addition to seeing how the McIlhenny Company ages Tabasco Pepper Sauce in white oak barrels and ships it all over the world, you can visit Avery Island’s 250-acre Jungle Gardens and see, in season, a variety of azaleas, camellias and bamboo. You might even spy alligators, deer and raccoons that live in the hills and marshes around the gardens.

The gardens are strung along a path covered by gnarled oaks laced with Spanish moss. There is also a shrine that houses a centuries-old Buddha – a gift to E.A. McIlhenny in 1936.

Born on Avery Island in 1872, Edward Avery (“Ned”) McIlhenny was an arctic explorer, naturalist, and conservationist. He studied the plants and animals on Avery Island and in the surrounding salt marshes and, in 1895, founded Bird City, a private bird sanctuary for the once-endangered snowy egret.

Today, thousands of snowy egrets nest on the island each spring on the specially-built, pier-like structures that are part of the Bird City pond.

McIlhenny assumed the presidency of McIlhenny Company from his father in 1898 and ran the world-famous pepper sauce operation until his death 51 years later.

In the 1920s, however, he found time to convert his private Avery Island estate into Jungle Gardens, decorating it with exotic botanical specimens from around the world. He gradually expanded the gardens until it reached its present size.

He planted camellias and azaleas, which thrived in south Louisiana’s mild winters and semitropical summers. Through the years, thousands of these plants were arranged under the magnificent stands of live oaks. The preservationist planted over four hundred varieties of camellias, over a hundred varieties of azaleas, over fifty varieties of juniper and over a thousand varieties of iris.

In 1935, McIlhenny opened Jungle Gardens to the public, and since then it has remained a favorite south Louisiana tourist destination.

In addition to touring the gardens, thousands of visitors tour the Tabasco Pepper Sauce factory on Avery Island each year. There’s a short film on Tabasco history and a guided tour of the company’s bottling and packaging operations.

In the adjacent Tabasco Country Store there is wide array of Tabasco products and souvenirs for sale.

There is a $1 conservation fee per vehicle to enter onto the island, although there is no additional charge to tour the Tabasco factory. Tour hours are from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. each day, except major holidays.

Jungle Gardens and Bird City is open until 5pm each day, including holidays. Admission to the gardens is $8 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under. Refreshments are available.

For more information on the activities on Avery Island, call the visitors center at 337-369-6243 or visit junglegardens.org.