The Daily Dispatch: December 16, 1865., [Electronic resource]

The greatest known salt mine in the world.

The salt mine or island belonging to Judge Avery is perhaps the most extensive in the known world. The salt is of a pure crystal, and, unlike that obtained from the famous Cracow mines of Poland, requires no recoiling. During the early part of the late war it was one of the principal resources of supply to the South.

The name of the island is "Petit Ance," and consists of a hill, at some points one hundred and sixty feet high, containing about two thousand two hundred and forty acres of land, surrounded by the waters of Bayou Vermillion, situated about nine miles from Vermillion bay, in the above-named parish.

Although salt has been manufactured upon the island for many years, yet the discovery of the mines was not made until 1863.

The deposit seems inexhaustible, and promises to be one of the greatest developments of the age. Although the production of salt in the United States in 1860 was nearly thirteen millions of bushels, yet the importations of this article from foreign ports were very large. Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Comet.