The Indian Territory in the Civil War Message Board

Licks and Salt Works
In Response To: Re: Alberty's Lick? ()

I thought I'd share more on "licks" and saltworks for those unfamiliar and due to their importance in the history in northeastern Oklahoma (and because I like to hear myself talk).

A lick or salt lick is a location where water carries salt and minerals to the surface, usually a spring, and then through evaporation, salt residue is left on the surface along the bank or in the mud and clay. Wildlife find these locations and routinely return to lick the salt. These were great sites for deer hunting -- not much hunting to it -- so local hunters knew these sites.

If there was a large concentration of salt in the water and a shallow pool or swamp for the water to stand and evaporate, there would be salt crystals left on the surface and local residents would come and scrape the salt off of rocks and such for personal use. These are also good areas to raise cattle and to homestead due to the availability of salt for livestock and for personal use. These "basins" could cover several acres where water would stand and evaporate. These locations became landmarks and were called "licks".

Where salt was not available in large quantities and as populations grew, salt was a valuable commodity. The most productive locations, if near a navigable water way (i.e., the Grand and Arkansas Rivers) were the obvious choice to develop saltworks. People would painstaking drill through the rock to get at the subsurface salt water. The water would be boiled off in large (and expensive) cast iron kettles which could be shipped up the rivers to the site. The salt was packed in barrels and then shipped and sold down river. Although the initial investment was high, the business was very lucritive and salt was sold under contract to the military (e.g., Fort Smith, AR) and to towns down river (e.g., Little Rock, AR) and sometimes as far as New Orleans. The first relatively small scale saltworks were developed by white traders/settlers along the Grand River -- e.g., the Chouteaus.

Cherokee began to move west in the late 1700s. In the early 1800s, the US Government began its idea of moving all the Indians west of the Mississippi, e.g., the Georgia Compact. A large number of Cherokee settled in Arkansas with a concentration around present Russellville along the Arkansas River. In the late 1820s, these Cherokee were pressured into a treaty to move to what is now northeastern Oklahoma and essentially the current boundaries of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. These Cherokee inherited ownership of the saltworks and private citizens developed them into extensive and profitable businesses. There is a article in the Chronicles of Oklahoma (which is online) by Grant Foreman called "Salt Works in Early Oklahoma" that describes the development of the salt business in Oklahoma and the locations of the most prominent saltworks http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v010/v010p474.html. It also discusses the political impact in the Cherokee Nation and how it increased the hostility between the Ross Party (Eastern Cherokee) and the Watie Party (e.g., Treaty Party, Southern Cherokee) -- the more numerous Eastern Cherokee took control from the existing Western Cherokee government about 1839 and nationalized the saltworks and then leased the highly profitable saltworks to their constituents. The persons holding these leases could then sublease, sell their lease, or contract the operation of the saltworks -- which can add to the difficulty of locating these sites now due to the various names by which they were commonly known.

During the war, many of the cast iron kettles (essentially large iron basins) were destroyed to keep them from falling into enemy hands since salt was, of course, valuable to both armies. (How do you break a huge cast iron kettle?) Late in the war, the 2nd IHG was stationed at the Mackey Saltworks on Illinois River making salt. One of the broken, and later repaired, kettles from the Mackey Saltworks is at the western entrance to Bacone College in Muskogee. When the railroads came after the war, cheap salt from the east became available and the saltworks were no longer profitable.

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Alberty's Lick?
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Licks and Salt Works
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More on Alberty's Lick
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