Avery Island (historically ) is a salt dome located in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, United States, about three miles (5 km) inland from Vermilion River (Louisiana), which in turn opens onto the Gulf of Mexico. A small human population resides on the island.
History
Long before its namesake Avery family settled there in the 1830s, Native Americans in the United Statess discovered that Avery IslandTs verdant flora covered a precious natural resource"a massive salt dome. There the Indians boiled the IslandTs briny spring water to extract salt, which they traded to other tribes as far away as central Texas, Arkansas, and Ohio.

According...

Avery Island (historically ) is a salt dome located in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, United States, about three miles (5 km) inland from Vermilion River (Louisiana), which in turn opens onto the Gulf of Mexico. A small human population resides on the island.
History
Long before its namesake Avery family settled there in the 1830s, Native Americans in the United Statess discovered that Avery IslandTs verdant flora covered a precious natural resource"a massive salt dome. There the Indians boiled the IslandTs briny spring water to extract salt, which they traded to other tribes as far away as central Texas, Arkansas, and Ohio.

According to records maintained prior to 1999 in the Southern Historical Collection at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Inventory of the Avery Family of Louisiana, 1796-1951] Petite Anse Island, renamed Avery Island in the late 19th century, was purchased by John Craig Marsh of New Jersey in 1818. Besides mining salt, Marsh operated a sugar plantation on the island's fertile soil. A daughter, Sarah Craig Marsh, married Daniel Dudley Avery in 1837, thus uniting the Marsh and Avery families. Daniel Dudley Avery hailed from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was a jurist. In 1849, Daniel became co-owner of his inlaw's sugar plantation and salt mines, and in 1855 he became sole owner.

Just prior to the American Civil War, Edmund McIlhenny joined the Avery family by wedding Mary Eliza Avery, daughter of Daniel Dudley Avery and Sarah Marsh Avery. In 1868, McIlhenny founded McIlhenny Company and began manufacturing Tabasco brand pepper sauce. In 1870, he received letters patent for his sauce processing formula. That same basic process is still used today.

Avery Island was hit hard in September 2005 by Hurricane Rita.Shevory, Kristina.'The Fiery Family: The McIlhennys Make Tabasco Come What May,'Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2007, pp. B1 and B4. According to the Wall Street Journal, the family is spending $5 million on constructing a -high levee, pumps, and back-up generators to ensure that future hurricanes will not disrupt Tabasco sauce production.