November 1996 Blazer

The early salt industry in Syracuse

I THE HISTORY BLAZER I I SEII'S OF CTTAHS PAST FROM THE I Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grailde Salt Lake City. LTT 84101 1 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3503 I The Early Salt Industry in Syracuse THEF IRST SALT INDUSTRY IN SYRACUSDE, a vis County, was established by George Payne in 1880 at ponds on the south side of the Syracuse road. His efforts, although limited, marked the beginning of a thriving business that would employ hundreds of people and produce thousands of tons of salt needed by farmers, mnchers, and the mining industry. In the early days, salt deposits were made by evaporating salt water in special ponds. The c r y ssa~ lt w as shoveled into large piles and wheeled to the outside banks in large wooden wheelbarrows along planks to keep from breaking the crust. Payne loaded the salt into wagons and hauled it to Ogden where it was sold. In August 1885 William W. Galbraith bought Payne's salt works and his fatm which paralleled the lake shore, about 120 acres. Galbraith constructed 90 acres of salt ponds. Water from the lake was pumped into the ponds by three steam engines. The fresh water used for steam was supplied by artesian wells. He was soon producing as much as 20,000 tons of salt each year. As the industry developed, he decided to refine and package the salt in three- and five- pound sacks. The refining grinder and packaging plant were located just north of the Syracuse road, about where the Syracuse Resort was later built. Galbraith adopted the brand name Syracuse, after Syracuse, New York, where reportedly the purest salt in the world was being produced at that time. Within two years the name caught on. A railroad was built, and the spur was called Syracuse Junction. That same year, 1887, the Syracuse Lakeshore Resort was built, and the name Syracuse became permanently attached to the community. Galbraith sold his interest for $ 13,000 to Fred Kiesel and Daniel C. Adams who incorporat-ed the Adams and Kiesel Salt Works on May 17, 1886, with Adams as president and Kiesel as vice- president. The new owners did away with the refining and packaging plant but continued to harvest and ship crude salt to the Silver Mill in Montana. In 1887 the Ogden and Syracuse Railroad was constructed from the Syracuse Junction ( present Clearfield), to the salt works five miles west. Adams and Kiesel sold between 15,000 and 20,000 tons of salt per year. Only Inland Salt Company had a greater capacity, producing 40,000 tons in 1890 and 90,000 tons in 1891. A unique procedure using a " split" or Weavage plane" was developed by Utah salt makers. It greatly assisted in the harvesting of salt. Salt was allowed to build up to a depth of several inches, forming a hard floor on the bottom of the pond. Each season thereafter a thin layer of very fine crystals was deposited, forming a split between the flaor and the newly formed ( more) crystals. Without this cleavage plane, the new crystals would fasten themselves to the salt floor in a continuous formation that was impossible to separate. The split was accomplished in two steps. I First, workers drained the pond until only a small amount of heavily concentrated brine covered I the floor. This was called a ' sunsplit." Then a layer of very fine crystals one- eighth of an inch I deep covered the large jagged crystals below. A rail was dragged across the floor of the pond knocking the edges off the crystals, thus forming a fine layer of salt to separate the floor from the new crop to come. Finally highly concentrated brine was introduced into the pond and larger I I crystals of the annual crop grew on the layer of fine salt. The harvest followed after a five- month growing season. Horse drawn, single- bottom, moldboard plows were used to loosen the salt. The plow blade was inserted into a hole that had been chipped down to the split with a shovel or grubbing hoe. At the beginning of each furrow a new hole was dug. Precise attention was given to keep the plowshare or cutting edge perfectly level following the split. Preventing contamination of the salt was a very real problem with the use of horses during the harvesting process. A bag strapped to the tail and hind legs was an attempt to solve one problem, and an alert, coordinated boy with a bucket seemed a logical solution to the other. After the salt was plowed, men working in pairs with square shovels loaded the salt into wheelbarrows holding from 500 to 800 pounds. It is said that each man loaded an average of 8 to 12 tons a day, for 35 cents per ton, and worked from daylight to dark. This method proved too slow, and horse- drawn cars were constructed to move the salt to solid ground. The salt was shipped in its coarse state to Montana to be used in fluxing ore at the Butte refineries. Harvesting and refining methods varied with each company. Prior to 1890 salt production in Utah was sold as crude or pond- run salt. Very little refining was done in Utah before the larger companies became established in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Sources: David E. Miller, Ihe Great Salt Lake ( Salt Lake City, 1949); Christopher Galbraith, " Incidents in the Syracuse Salt Works;" Adams and Kiese1 Salt Company, incorporation letters, Salt Lake City, office of the Secretary of State; T. H. Bright, " Salt Making on the Great Salt Lake, " Journal of Chemical Education, March 1932. THEj HISTORBLYA ZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone [phone] ( CH)