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The home of world-famous
TABASCO® Sauce, Avery Island, Louisiana, lies about
140 miles west of New Orleans. Surrounded by swamps and
marshes, Avery Island is a mysteriously beautiful place
where the pepper fields grow, the factory hums, and the
McIlhennys and their employees continue to live and work
much as they have for generations.
A Natural Paradise
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Avery Island is a natural paradise,
inhabited by exotic plant and animal species from around
the world. And under the Avery/McIlhenny family's
careful management, it has remained that way to this day.
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Saving the Egrets
E.A. McIlhenny, or "Mr. Ned" as he was affectionately known, founded a bird colony in the 1890s — later called Bird City — after plume hunters slaughtered egrets by the thousands for feathers to make fashionable ladies' hats. Mr. Ned gathered up eight young egrets, raised them in captivity on the Island, and released them in the fall to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico. The following spring the birds returned to the Island with others of their species - a migration that continues to this day, as thousands of snowy white egrets and other water birds return to Bird City each spring. This vast, protected rookery owes its existence to Mr. Ned.
Botanical Treasures
Mr. Ned also prized rare plants, and he
enhanced the Island's natural landscape with numerous
varieties of azaleas, Japanese camellias, Egyptian
papyrus and other botanical treasures. When oil was
discovered on the Island in 1942, he made sure that
production crews bypassed live oak trees, buried
pipelines (or painted them green), and took additional
steps to preserve the Island's pristine beauty and
ensure its continuing role as a wildlife refuge.
Visitors From Around the World
Today, his famed 250-acre Jungle Gardens
and Bird City host visitors from all over the world. In
season, visitors to Avery Island can expect to see a
variety of azaleas, camellias and bamboo, in addition to
alligators, deer, and raccoons that live in the hills
and marshes around the gardens. Visitors can stroll
along a path covered by gnarled oaks laced with Spanish
moss, and stand at the shrine that houses a
centuries-old Buddha - a gift to Mr. Ned in 1936. And
then there are the thousands of snowy egrets that nest
in Bird City each spring.
Visitors to Avery Island can also tour
the factory where TABASCO® Sauce is made and shop in
the TABASCO® Country Store.
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