- Title
- Our State
-
-
- Date
- January 2007
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
Our State
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TAR 1 1 ELL HISTORY
A Dash of Salt
When .America's favorite seasoning became hard to come
by during the Civil War. the state government and private
entrepreneurs established salt-making operations along the coast.
hy Kathy Grant WtsniROOk
Chances Are, you've never thought
Ы
vili as a previous commodity.
After ill. it4 |ust v) common.
Tlicrcs a shaker lull of a on almost
every table in almost every diner in
America, hast food restaurants hand
out tiny packets ol it by the fistlul.
And it can likely be found in every
priv ate kitchen in the country.
We may take silt for panted now.
but that hasn't always been the case.
One hundrrsl and fifty years ago.
people were keenly aware of the
importance of salt, not just as a
seasoning, but for its role in tanning
hides, dyeing cloth, and —
■ most unportantly —
5 preserving foods. So
i when it became clear that
5 North Carolina’s supply
- of salt from Britain and
? the West Indies would
3 almost certainly be cut
| off by Union blockades
J during the Civil War,
f both state governments
J and private citircm
«
responded by
' establishing salt-
s making opcratuinv
~ or viltvvorks. near the
«
coast, where there was
i limitless access to salt
; water from which
j to extract the much-
needed staple. Almost
a century earlier, the
Revolutionary War
had prompecd
similar action.
A business venture
Early in the Civil War. the state
located a saltworks at Morehead City
and began working to establish another
one on Currituck Sound. Interestingly,
in addition to producing salt, the
Morehead C ity facility also served as
a diversion for the (ion federate soldiers
who were stationed nearby on Boguc
Island, about six miles south of Fort
Macon. “The process of making salt
by evaporating seawater intrigued the
soldiers." writes David McGee on the
26th Regiment North Carolina Troops'
website. "Several tried to get some
of the precious cominoditv to send
home." Both of these sues fell to Union
troops in 1862, so throughout much
of the war. salt production in North
Carolina was actually concentrated
in the lower Cape Fear area at a state
saltworks near Wilmington and also at
a number of pnvately -owned saltworks.
Additionally, citizens and soldiers in
the Tar Heel state received salt from
a state-run facility in Virginia.
North Carolina's privately owned
works were established by local
entrepreneurs who knew a good
business opportunity when they vise-
one. "During 1861. expansion of the
salt industry was slow and steady. ...
By the spring «if 1862 the urgctKv to
enter the vilt business was reminiscent
of a miniature Cakfomta gold rush. ...
Almost everyone w ho had property
on salt water made salt, or leased land
foe vilt making, or invested in the salt
bonanza." according to Isabel M.
Tho Morehead Crty saltworks facility
sorvod as a welcome diversion for
Confodorato soldiers stationed
on nearby Boguo Island.
1мтшгу
2007 Out Stair ?S
