Disaster · Published October 5, 2026

November 20, 1980: The Day Lake Peigneur Drained Into a Salt Mine

By TodayInHistory.wtf Editorial Desk. Reviewed by TodayInHistory.wtf Editorial Standards.

On Thursday, November 20, 1980, a shallow lake in south Louisiana drained straight down into the ground.

Lake Peigneur sat beside Jefferson Island in Iberia Parish. That day a Texaco oil rig was drilling out on the water. Hundreds of feet below it, miners were at work in a salt mine run by the Diamond Crystal Salt Company. By the end of the day the lake was a mud flat, a whirlpool had swallowed a drilling rig and a string of barges, and the mine was flooded.

Nobody died. The whole thing sounds invented, and the main lawsuit was settled out of court.

A salt island in a shallow lake

Jefferson Island is not much of an island in the usual sense. It is a hill that salt pushed up from below. A geological abstract published through the AAPG archive describes it as "the most northwesterly member of the well-known Five Islands Trend of South Louisiana," where each island "is a manifestation of the uplifting of landscapes by a rising salt" mass from deep below.

The same abstract notes that Jefferson Island "has had a history of industrial activities pertaining to exploitation of salt, sulfur and petroleum." By 1980 two of those activities were going on in the same spot at once. In the abstract's words, the disaster "was preceded by two types of concurrent mineral activities: petroleum drilling on the surface by Texaco, and underground salt mining by Diamond Crystal Salt co."

The lake itself was barely deep at all. United Press International reported the next day that Peigneur was "a brackish lake that has been a spawning ground for shrimp and other forms of marine life," and called it "The 3-foot-deep coastal lake."

What the drill hit

According to that UPI report, "Texaco said the rig had reached a depth of 1,228 feet when it apparently punched a hole into the roof of a cavern in a salt mine operated by Diamond Crystal Salt Co. of St. Clair, Mich."

Texaco also said it had no idea the mine was there. Its spokeswoman, Brenda Buras, told UPI: "Texaco had not been advised of the existence of the (mine) shaft and was not aware of it." She added: "However, Texaco representatives met with Diamond Crystal representatives before drilling began and discussed the proposed location of the well site."

Water from the lake began pouring into the mine. The lake "quickly drained and turned into a giant mud flat Thursday," UPI wrote, "while a growing whirlpool sucked water through canals from nearby bayous and Vermilion Bay."

The whirlpool

The people who saw it had trouble finding words for it. Two fishermen, Leonce Viator and his nephew Timmy Dore, "were nearly sucked into the pit," according to UPI.

"I thought it was the world coming to an end," Viator said. "Before we got on the bank, we seen barges and boats rushing to that hole ... The water was all in a circle and it was like a whirlpool and everything was going in there -- trees, dirt, everything just rushing out there."

He and Dore tied their boat to a tree and ran ashore. "We looked back of us and there goes that tree into that swirling water," he said.

Susan White, news director at KANE radio, flew over the lake late that Thursday. "It was awesome. It looks like a great big hole in the ground," she told UPI. "There are 10 barges, at least one drilling rig and a tugboat in the bottom of it. They just look like toys. There's a waterfall effect coming over one end where the water is being drawn in."

The water did more than drop. On the surface, it also ran the wrong way. The canal, which UPI identified as the Bayou Carlin or Delcambre Canal, "normally carries water from the lake to the Gulf of Mexico." That day, "Water from the canal yesterday was sucked the opposite way, into the crater and underground in the lake." By Friday the underground spaces appeared full, and water flowing back in from the canal had begun to refill the lake.

Everyone got out

For an event this violent, the human toll was surprisingly light. UPI reported: "No one was injured but seven workers had to abandon the Texaco oil rig quickly and 50 workers fled the mine."

Even after the water was gone, the ground around the lake kept moving. "Some 15 families and about 300 to 500 mine employees were evacuated from Jefferson Island later as the land cracked and crumbled," according to UPI. The Washington Post's report quoted Wayne Knack, district manager of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration office in Dallas: "We've ordered the island evacuated . . . We're not taking any chances."

Most of what was lost was property. Diamond Crystal "said the mine appeared to be a total loss," UPI wrote. At Rip Van Winkle's Live Oak Gardens, a garden attraction on the island, "Greenhouses and a visitors center collapsed."

Whose fault was it?

This is where the record gets complicated. The early reports did not even agree that the drilling caused the collapse.

The Washington Post's report of November 1980 described "An abandoned salt mine shaft 1,300 feet deep" that "collapsed." UPI's next-day story opened with officials saying "an oil drilling operation may not have been responsible for the hole." A university geologist who asked not to be named told UPI: "One of the surprising things is the rapid rate at which the opening widened; (it) might have indicated the rapid collapse underground." Herrin Ducote of the Iberia Parish sheriff's office said: "We're not sure it was caused from the drilling."

Diamond Crystal took its own view to court. A 1983 UPI report on the settlement says the company's suit "claimed a rig operated for Texaco by Wilson Brothers penetrated the roof of an excavated room on the mine's 1,300-foot level." The other side did not give ground on that point. An attorney for Wilson Brothers, the drilling contractor, said: "There are a number of experts who have reached contrary conclusions that the well did not drill into the salt mine."

The case never went to trial. In July 1983, UPI reported, "Diamond Crystal ... accepted $32 million from Texaco and Wilson Brothers Corp. in an out-of-court settlement." The company had "originally sued Texaco for $260 million." Wilson Brothers agreed to pay 6.25 percent of the $32 million and Texaco the rest.

A separate group of plaintiffs was also paid. "J. L. Bayless, Live Oak Gardens Foundation and Live Oak Gardens Ltd. received $12.8 million in damages from Texaco, Wilson Brothers and Diamond Crystal," UPI wrote, adding that "The mining accident destroyed Bayless' home and the surrounding tropical gardens."

Why it is remembered

Lake Peigneur usually gets told as a simple story: a drill hit a mine, and a lake fell in. The sources from the time show something messier. Two industries were working the same piece of ground, one above and one below. Texaco said it had not been told about the mine. Diamond Crystal said the drill went through its roof. The drilling contractor's attorney said some experts disagreed. In the end, Diamond Crystal's suit against Texaco and Wilson Brothers ended in an out-of-court settlement, though UPI reported that other cases were still pending.

The AAPG abstract draws the broader lesson: "This disaster underscores the hazard of human activities interfering with the natural environment."

What the record supports

Sources