Prior to November 20, 1980, Lake Peigneur near Delcambre, Louisiana, was a pretty nondescript place. People fished, Live Oak Gardens nursery grew and sold plants, and the home of American actor Joseph Jefferson and its lush Rip Van Winkle Gardens sat for 110 years on Jefferson Island on the shore of the lake. On that day, however, a Texaco drilling rig accidentally drilled into the Diamond Crystal salt mine 1,300 feet below and set into motion one of the strangest man-made disasters in history. The lake drained into the mine, sucking down the drilling rig, 11 barges, trees... and a good chunk of Jefferson Island itself. The lake, which is connected to the Gulf of Mexico by the Delcambre Canal, formed for a brief time the largest waterfall in the state's history as the canal poured into the lake to fill it back up again. All told, only a dog was killed and the lake is now a nondescript saltwater lake with a slightly odd history. As for Jefferson Island, it seems that a house which had been built only a few months before collapsed on what was now the edge of the lake, leaving only a chimney behind. It's still there, nearly 36 years later, a few feet out from the shore as a silent monument to a weird week in history.

I took this shot as part of a roll to verify a light leak had been fixed in my dad's old camera... pro tip: the foam seals in old 35mm film cameras do not handle being in a garage exposed to heat, cold and humidity very well. I'm shocked the pictures I've taken in the past came out as good as they did. At any rate, it's perfect now, so hopefully I'll be able to take photos of odd and interesting places for a while!

Shot at Rip Van Winkle Gardens, New Iberia, Louisiana at 400 ISO with a 50mm lens (I'm pretty sure, at any rate).