Rip Van Winkle Gardens and the Lake Peigneur Disaster

The estate takes its name from Joseph Jefferson, one of the most beloved American actors of the nineteenth century, famous above all for his long-running portrayal of Rip Van Winkle, the man who slept for twenty years. Jefferson bought this island of high ground and in the 1870s built a fine home here, using it as a retreat where he hunted, painted, and entertained friends.

The house he raised is a graceful Victorian structure with wide galleries and detailed woodwork, and it still stands at the heart of the gardens, open for tours. The island itself sits atop a great buried dome of salt, part of a chain of such domes that dot the Louisiana coast and give rise to these unexpected rises of land above the surrounding marsh.

In the twentieth century the property became a botanical showplace, its slopes planted with camellias, azaleas, roses, bamboo, and beds of seasonal color, all shaded by ancient live oaks draped in Spanish moss. Paths wind through the plantings and out to overlooks above Lake Peigneur, and the whole garden feels lush and subtropical, a green world tumbling down toward the water.

Spring is the peak, when the camellias give way to azaleas and the beds fill with bloom, but the gardens hold interest across the year thanks to the deep shade and the evergreen oaks. A cafe on the bluff lets visitors pause over the view, and the combination of house, garden, and lake makes for an easy, restful outing in the heart of Cajun country.

On November 20, 1980, Lake Peigneur was a shallow freshwater lake perhaps ten feet deep. Beneath it, a salt company was mining a great dome of rock salt, its tunnels reaching far below the lakebed. That morning an oil drilling rig operating on the lake bored down at the wrong spot and pierced the roof of the salt mine. Water began pouring through the hole into the mine, and once it started, nothing could stop it.

The rushing water rapidly enlarged the opening, and the whole lake began to drain into the earth, forming a vast whirlpool that swallowed the drilling rig, barges, trees, and acres of the surrounding land, including a chunk of the gardens. As the freshwater emptied out, water from a canal reversed course and rushed in from the Gulf, briefly creating the tallest waterfall in the state of Louisiana as it plunged into the emptied basin. Remarkably, no one was killed. The lake refilled, deeper and now saltier than before, and stands today calm above the buried scar.

The island and lakeshore are alive with the birdlife of coastal Louisiana. Herons and egrets stalk the shallows, waterfowl gather on the lake in the cooler months, and songbirds fill the oaks in spring and fall. Turtles bask on the banks and the occasional alligator suns near the water, as they do across the bayou country.

Spring is the showpiece season, with camellias and azaleas in full color and mild, pleasant air. Summer is hot, humid, and green, best enjoyed in the morning cool under the oaks. Fall brings comfortable temperatures and returning migratory birds, and even winter stays green here, the evergreen oaks and camellias carrying color through the year.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.