Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, July 29, 1997

Anse La Butte salt found in 1899

by Jim Bradshaw

The first official reference to Anse La Butte bears the date of April 4, 1893. Charles S. Babin Jr. of Lafayette was appointed on that day to "sell, rent, or manage the 'mines' of coal, oil, sulphur, iron, gas, or whatever else may be found" on the lands of Mrs. Emma Pelletier and Honore Breaux. The proprietors' sudden interest in Anse La Butte was generated by "considerable quantities of gas...escaping from a natural gas spring."

Later that year, Paul Ledanois attempted to drill an oil well near the dome, but had to abandon the project after drilling only 50 feet. He tried again in 1899, and sank a shallow well that was able to furnish a natural gas light that flamed 8 feet high.

Later that year, Capt. Anthony E. Lucas tried to drill an oil well at Anse La Butte. He found salt at a depth of 290 feet.

The discovery of oil at the Spindletop Field near Beaumont, Texas, in 1901 brought on more oil exploration at Anse La Butte. In the fall of 1901, C. F. Z. Caracristi, a geologist hired by the Anse La Butte Oil and Mineral Company, urged his employers to develop the salt there as well as the oil and gas reserves. He reported a "salt deposit that can readily be estimated to have a minimum workable area of five acres, with a thickness of 300 ft., equal to approximately 40,000,000 tons of rock salt."

Immediately after the Caracristi report, the Moresi Brothers of Jeanerette began drilling on the "Lucas Tract" at Anse La Butte, but did not find salt. The Martin Simpson Oil Well No. 1, however, located on top of the hill, found two layers of salt, and another well by the Anse La Butte Oil Company found three more.

In 1907, G. D. Harris reported on the "great salt mass at this place, dominating the region...." He recommended "bringing the salt to the surface in the form of brine, then evaporating the same for salt.

In spite of these finds, no attempts were made to mine the salt until 1920, when the Lafayette Salt Co. drilled a series of wells to test the depth of the salt. One of the wells found salt at 160 feet, the shallowest depth yet recorded, but the well caved in. Another well drilled in 1920 found a 1,400-foot-thick bed of salt just 200 feet below ground, and began to pump brine from it.

The company abandoned the project in 1927 because it could not compete with the salt domes at Avery Island, Jefferson Island, Weeks Island, and elsewhere in southern Louisiana.

The Star Salt Corp., a Lafayette Salt Co. rival, began manufacturing table salt in 1923. Its brine well was at Anse La Butte, but its processing plant was in Lafayette. The brine was pumped in wooden pipes from the Anse La Butte well and placed in large "pans" for evaporation. Steam from a nearby sawmill was used to speed the process. But Star gave up production in 1930, because of the high cost of the project.

Gordy Salt Co. of New Iberia built a modern plant and began production from the Anse La Butte dome in 1941. Cargill Inc., which is based in Minneapolis, took over the plant in 1976.

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