5505 Rip Van Winkle Rd.
New Iberia, LA 70560
29.975237,-91.973441
In all my years of investigating, I don't think I have ever visited a location where the land itself has an even more interesting history than the haunted house that sits there. That is, until I visited the Joseph Jefferson Mansion and Rip Van Winkle Gardens, located on the outskirts of New Iberia on Jefferson Island. Although the focal point of this blog will be the home, to truly appreciate the complexity of this location, I must first introduce you to the unique land.
Jefferson Island, originally known as Orange Island, helps make up the famous “Five Islands” of Louisiana. The islands were created due to enormous pressures in the earth, forcing large amounts of salt rock to form a mother bed located five miles below the earth's surface. This elevated several low laying hills, which became the five islands: Jefferson, Weeks, Belle Isle, Cote Blanche and Avery Island. These islands are elevated anywhere between fifty and one hundred feet above sea level, which due to the islands' proximities to the Gulf of Mexico, this is considered extremely high ground.
