Civil War Salt Works

GPS Coordinates: 84°8.710’W, 30° 7.797′ N.

Download the Civil War Salt Works pamphlet

In the days before refrigeration, salt was used to preserve meats and tan leather. When the Union blockade along the southeastern coast cut off salt shipments, the Confederacy turned to the ocean, and no area was more productive than the shallow bays and marshes of Florida’s Gulf Coast between the Suwanee River and St. Andrews bay.

Ranging from small family -run salt works using a few iron kettles that could hold 60 to 100 gallons of water set in a brick furnace to huge complexes using large boilers of up to 1,000 kettles, 489 salt works operated between the St. Marks and Suwanee Rivers. Salt water was boiled to a mushy consistency and then spread on oak planks to dry in the sun. In damp weather the salt was kept under cover and small fires helped the drying process.

Early in the war, the salt industry drew little attention from the Union. From late 1862 until the end of the war, the US Navy shelled the salt works repeatedly. Workers fled as raiders came ashore to destroy equipment. In February 1864, two separate attacks destroyed the salt works at St. Marks and Goose Creek. The latter produced 800 bushels of salt each day. Buildings and equipment destroyed by an 1863 raid on a large St. Andrew Bay plant were valued at $6 million at that time.

Men who could produce 20 bushels of salt a day were excused from serving, but he labor could be just as dangerous a the front line once the Union began targeting larger operations. Heavy storms also took a toll on the workers and the equipment. As the salt was shipped farther from the coast and passed through the hands of of dealers, the price increased. In the spring of 1862, salt sold for $3 a bushel. Salt production attracted profiteers, and speculators purchased salt marshes to hold for further production. Seine fisheries were associated with the salt works at Shell Island and Mashes Island, but the Confederacy did not make good use of this food resource.

Salt was still a necessary commodity after the war. When regular trad resumed the number of people engaged in its production declined in the Gulf coast area. Bricks, wood, kettles, and boilers that could be put to other uses were scavenged from the sites. Broke parts or materials that were too large to easily move were left behind and continue to deteriorate.