Volume 16 , Issue 35

1912 - Oklahoma's Salt Springs

It was 14 November 1912, Thursday, in the Farmers' Champion, out of Elgin, Oklahoma, front headlines read: "Oklahoma's Salt." The "Farmers' Champion" was the successor to "Indiahoma Champion."

The State Geological Survey recently in 1912 or so made public some points in connection with Okahom's salt deposits, with which her people were not generally acquainted.

The survey had established the fact that there was enough salt water going to waste on the plains of Oklahoma to make sufficient salt to load 100 railway cars every day in the year. And yet the bulk of Oklahoma's salt was derived from other states, and was sold to Oklahoma merchants at $1.70 per barrel. But two counties in the state produced salt for commercial purposes - Harmon and Blaine. In 1910 these counties produced 2564 barrels of salt. The largest salt plain in the state was located in Alfalfa county. It covered an area about four-by-four miles square, and the surface was encrusted with glistening white slat crystals. The plain was level and white, absolutely barren of vegetation, and was fed by salt springs.

In the valley of the Cimarron, Woodward county, were two other very promising salt plains, which were also fed by slat springs. It was estimated that in the is one county alone there were over 1,000 of these salt springs.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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