Lone Star Salt Company [Cover]
Name/Title
Lone Star Salt Company [Cover]Description
Cover from the "LONE STAR SALT COMPANY, / GRAND SALINE, TEXAS" postmarked June 18, 1906 in Grand Saline, Texas and addressed to "L.L. Shields, / Santa Anna, Texas."Context
Grand Saline is on U.S. Highway 80 and State Highway 110, fifteen miles northeast of Canton in northeastern Van Zandt County. It is known, because of its extensive salt mines, as the "salt capital of Texas." The town was called Jordan's Saline until the arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railway on its route from Marshall to Dallas in 1873. Landowner Samuel Q. Richardson donated fifty acres for the townsite and constructed a general store facing the train tracks. The new railroad depot, built by chief engineer Grenville M. Dodge, was called Grand Saline, and the new commercial center subsequently expanded to include what had been Jordan's Saline. A local post office opened in 1874. Dodge located and divided the townsite into lots and blocks, constructed the Lone Star Salt Company, and on May 9, 1876, turned over all rights to the Texas and Pacific. After the Civil War Richardson drilled a local salt well to 350 feet. In 1875 the Richardson Salt Works was leased to a St. Louis company organized by G. M. Overlease. In 1890 an Indiana firm known as the Grand Saline Salt Company and later as Morton Salt Company drilled further at the site and began mining. Under the management of English engineer Andrew Wilderspin, improved methods were introduced, and in 1891 Byron Parsons organized the Lone Star Salt Company as the area's first steam-powered salt plant.Category
Agriculture
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