Show West Buys Utah Salt d It 1 tl ct Kt Plant Plent of Royal Salt Co I rs t a e t w rt r 01 r Self Salt Harvesting Noar a 0 i Greet Great Sa S l' l lake a f d By I. I A A. A CLAYTON JR ALT like gold occurs almost j S SAIT everywhere In In waters of the thelea sea lea In la the earths earth's strata In rocks yet rocks yet Its profitable extraction is to rare Utah la is one of the places where It occurs In abundance comprises com an Important resource and supports a IL major Industry The Great areat Salt lake Is the center center cen cent ter tel of one of the worlds world's greatest deposits with enough salt to supply supply sup sup- ply future generations for thousands thou sands of years The saline content of its water varies from 15 to 25 and the brine Is so 10 dense denle that the human body floats easily eully on Its surface It contains no life lite I So easily is salt obtained from the lake that there has bas been little incentive to exploit the numerous beds bedl and domes In other parts of ol Utah Salt production is II one ol ot the states state's oldest Industries The first settlers gathered the crystals left by evaporation In the natural basins around the lake In 1860 1880 and after arter dams daml were built to impound Impound Im pound the water As AI the demand Increased production production tion was organized and much capital capi- capi tal invested The Inland Salt Company Company Company Com Com- pany was formed In 1889 It was succeeded in 1899 by the tha Inland Crystal Salt company which In 1927 became the Royal Crystal Salt company The Salt Lake Chemical Company a subsidiary of the Diamond Match company began operations on the southern shore of ot the lake in 1916 primarily to produce potash for war pur poses The Morton Salt company took over that property In 1918 an and has operated It since as a salt sal plant Whether the salt in la the lake originated through evaporation or volcanic action or both is II in die dis- puts The lake averaging only 15 feet In depth its proportion of ot eal salt varies from Crom year to year with the rainfall Though sodium chloride common salt is the sole com coin martial product of the lake steps are under way to recover sodium sulphate whose proportion Is I. next nex to the sodium chloride and thus establish a new Industry In Utah Variation In the density at which different chemicals precipitate permits permits per per- mits mite selective concentration segre aegis gatlon gallon of ot salt of ot the highest purity and the removal of ot magnesium calcium and other unwanted ele menu meats During the evaporation season leaBon from April to September mid brine is pu puMped pulped ped at the rate of gal Ions a minute 2 24 hours a day from the lake Into a flume From settling ponds it passes after atter five or six days clarl to concentrating ponds pond ot of 60 acres each The saturated brine lows flows by gravity to 20 crystallizing crystallising ponds each of ot 10 acres area liens Here the he salt crystals form and the bItterns bit bitterns terns ems other chemicals in lolu- lolu lion Ion are run off before they reach the he saturation stage A permanent floor loor of salt aalt Is maintained In each pond load In the late fall tall after atter a pond hu has las been thoroughly drained ordinary ordinary nary plows drawn by tract tractors on loosen the new salt from Irom the floor With scrapers and conveyor it is II stacked by a railroad siding aiding and weathered until needed at the mill An average annual crop is 11 about four Inches of ot salt The mill has bas a capacity ot of tons tone a season From a receiving storage bin the salt pastes passes through a rotating kiln drier heated to deg and to a cooler from which It goes 1091 to the stock bin Various sets seu of rolls rolla crush and site sire It Into nine sizes sites each of which occupies a separate bin Thence It is le ted fed automatically into sacks and packages pack ages agea for marketing The territory served by Utah Utah's salt aalt Industry extends extend I from Denver Colorado to Washington Oregon and part of California covering the Black Hills lillis In South Dakota and the Rocky Mountain states It gives steady employment to more than people with a payroll of ot more than OOOO a year and spends further amounts for the supplies power and fuel It re re- quires The bulk of ot the output going to other states stales brings much new money Into Utah Local salt companies pay the railroads about one one half halt million dollars a year for transportation Salt is pressed into blocks sometimes some sometimes times with the addition of ot phosphate phosphate phate for livestock f tee feeding e e d I n II g smoked it is Ja used for the complete sugar cure of ot meat and with Iodine It is II recommended by the medical profession for the prevention pre pre- prevention of goiter Over 40 of the school children of ot Utah are bra said to be afflicted with this thyroid deficiency A special kind of ot salt is fa iodized for animals Since the tho early days of Utah salt has bas been mined In Sevier and Sanpete counties where the mineral min miss eral oral occurs in n beds overlain with ten feet or more of earth This salt is fa recovered by stripping or quarry mining Some salt was obtained from Crom the great salt bed at Wendover miles west of ot Salt Lake City but commercial production production production tion is II no longer maintained there Intricate selling problems and the restrictions Imposed by freight rates constantly confront the industry in lu In Utah On their heir solution and friendly consideration at home depends an Important market for labor and source of revenue |