Neches Saline, C. S. A.
Tyler, Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Now covered by the waters of Lake Palestine, the Neches Saline was the source of salt for early settlers from over a wide area of East Texas. As early as 1765, the Spanish missionary Calahorra recorded the presence of salines in the area. An early manufacturing process for extracting salt from the saline involved drawing water from shallow wells and boiling it to the evaporation point, leaving the salt behind. The possibilities for commercial development of the Neches Saline became evident to the early settlers, and a small isolated settlement developed here before the Texas revolution. Local salt making declined throughout the South between 1850 and 1861 as salt began to be imported from England. With the Federal embargo during the Civil War, salt began to be made locally again. It was reported that James S. O. Brooks, who had come to Texas from West Virginia, had twelve furnaces operating at the Neches Saline during the war and manufactured 100 bushels of salt per day to meet the needs of the Confederacy. Brooks leased the salt works to his son, William Bradford, in 1865. W. B. Brooks, who purchased the operation in 1871, apparently was the last owner and operator of the salt works at the Neches Saline.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Before the waters of Lake Palestine swallowed it, the Neches Saline was a salt lifeline for East Texas—Spanish missionaries recorded its brine springs as early as 1765, and settlers boiled water from shallow wells to harvest the salt a frontier economy could not do without. Local salt-making faded in the 1850s as cheaper English salt arrived, but the Civil War's Federal blockade revived it: one operator was reported to run twelve furnaces here, turning out about a hundred bushels a day for the Confederacy.
Why it matters
Salt was a strategic necessity in the blockaded South, and sites like the Neches Saline show how a besieged Confederacy and everyday early Texans alike depended on local resources to survive.
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Related people
- · James S. O. Brooks
- · William Bradford Brooks
Themes & tags
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