C.S.A. Salt Works
Lometa, Lampasas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
West of here, on the Colorado. Brine springs used by Indians as infirmary or health resort. Increased operations in Civil War to make Army supply, for the men, cavalry horses and mule teams; and for general use for table and ranch purposes. To pump brine from the spring, a horse driven in a circle operated a lift that filled troughs upon a 40-foot-high scaffold. Cedar boughs placed in the troughs concentrated the brine, which filtered down into iron kettles that boiled one bushel of salt out of 50 bushels of brine.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
West of here on the Colorado River, brine springs long used by Native people as a healing resort were turned to industry during the Civil War. Workers pumped brine with a horse-driven lift onto a forty-foot scaffold, where cedar boughs concentrated it before iron kettles boiled it down—about one bushel of salt from fifty of brine. The salt supplied the Confederate army's men, cavalry horses, and mule teams, along with ranch and table needs.
Why it matters
Salt was a strategic necessity for the Confederacy, and improvised works like this reveal how the wartime South scrambled to supply itself from local resources.
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Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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