C.S.A. Salt Works
Buchanan Dam, Llano County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located between Tow Valley and Old Bluffton, 15 miles NE. Since 1935 under Lake Buchanan. During Civil War made salt for table, curing meat and hides, feeding cavalry horses. A day's boiling in 100 iron, 250-gallon kettles produced 20 to 30 bushels of salt. Cooled, sacked and hauled out, this met Texas' wartime shortages. First Llano County district court was held at salt works. Stagecoach stop was nearby. Brine here was from Cambrian sea waters trapped 500 million years ago in sand and strata. Indians led first settler here. (1964)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During the Civil War, brine welling up from ancient Cambrian sea deposits fed a salt works between Tow Valley and Old Bluffton, where a day's boiling in a hundred 250-gallon iron kettles yielded twenty to thirty bushels. The precious salt cured meat and hides, seasoned tables, and fed cavalry horses across a Texas cut off from coastal supply. The busy site also hosted Llano County's first district court and a nearby stagecoach stop before Lake Buchanan drowned it in 1935.
Why it matters
Salt was a strategic necessity the blockaded Confederacy could not import, so backcountry works like this were vital to keeping armies and civilians fed.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Conrad Fuchs House
Horseshoe Bay, TX
Conrad Fuchs, born in Germany in 1834, came to Texas in 1845 with his family and moved into Burnet County in 1853, receiving a state land grant in 1862. He left to serve in a Confederate artillery unit during the Civil War, then returned to build a steam grist and saw mill on Tiger Creek and to run the "Tiger Mill" post office. The fieldstone house he raised in the German pioneer style—with a central hall where his wife taught local children—became the heart of the settlement.
Granite Industry in Llano County
Llano, TX
The great granite outcrops of Llano County drew their first quarry in 1888, and when the railroad arrived in 1892 the demand for the pink-and-gray stone soared. Among the quarrymen was Italian immigrant Vincenzo Fantozzi Petrick, whose stone armored Texas coastal jetties and joined the granite shipped to build capitols, universities, and monuments. Llano granite still faces the Texas State Capitol and buildings from Austin to Kansas City.
Buchanan Dam
Burnet, TX
When a private dam project on the Colorado River went bankrupt in 1932, State Senator Alvin Wirtz turned to Washington, winning the backing of Congressman J.P. Buchanan — and the dam's name — to finish it. The 1934 Texas Legislature created the Lower Colorado River Authority to manage the river, and in the depths of the Depression the project put some 1,800 locals to work at 40 cents an hour. Completed in 1937, the dam raised Lake Buchanan behind it, drowning old Bluffton and forcing the relocation of graves, but bringing recreation, business, and steady power to the Hill Country.
Antlers Hotel
Kingsland, TX
Where the Llano and Colorado rivers meet, the Austin and Northwestern Railroad built a bridge and depot in 1892 and, soon after, the Antlers Hotel — a two-story wooden resort that opened in 1901 to greet railroad passengers stepping off the train. Guests strolled to a cottonwood park with a pavilion, fished the adjoining lake, and took in river views from the porches. As automobiles eclipsed rail travel the hotel quieted, passing through several owners before being refurbished and reopened in 1996.