Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-03-04

udys VI ldulUuS ONcVldllu SUuSc.llIle
notoriety, for 500. 900. The new pro-
prictor engaged James Viosca to man.
age his acquisition, but after Holli-
day died the bankrupt estate was glad
to realize ready cash for the salt
treasure, and Viosca became the own
CIR of Carmen Island. To him it has
become IL vcritahlc gold mine.
The salt deposits cover a surface of
1000 acres. About one-third Of this
acreage is a masso of pure, clean, white
salt; the remainder is covered simply
with a layer of soil, brought there by
rains from the adjacent mountains,
and also in places with IL thin coating
of coral, all of which when removed
show the pure white salt beneath.
The salt deposits in this basin have
proved by actual investigation to be
fourteen feet in thickness, but it is
hard to work at any depth below the
surface, as the briny water secping
through creates a new layer of salt
of from five to eight inches in thick
ness in fifteen days. The most re-
markable thing about this deposit is
the fact that, although the salt has
been taken from the basin for ages,
the surface of the lake has never been
lowered. but always retains the same
level. Like the widows cruise of oil,
the supply is inexhaustible.
The method of obtaining the salt
is very simple. A man armed with
an iron bar breaks off chunks of the
crystalline mass, which are then
loaded into carts and hauled to dry
land, from 600 to 500 feet distant.
Here the stuff is dumped. reloaded
and taken to the wharf, half a mile
away, where lighters receive the salt
and convey it to the vessels lying in
the bay. Crude Is this system is,
the cost of mining the salt and con-
veying it to the wharf averages a
trifie less than % cents a ton. With
improvements that have been su,!-
gested and that arc now under con-
sideration. the principal features of
which r the building of a narrow
gauge line to the salt deposits and the
erection of a pier extending $500
feet to the anchorage in the bay, it
will be possible to handle 1000 tons
of salt a day. Under the new ar
rangcment proposed it is hoped that
the present delay in loading vessels
will bc avoided. The demand for
Carmen Island salt is SO great that
there are seldom fewer than five
boats awaiting cargoes in the bay,
and sometimes there have been as
many as fourteen vessels lying at
anchorage.
Many theories have been advanced
accounting for the presence of this
wonderful salt deposit, but the one
most generally accepted is that the
surrounding hills and mountains con-
tain immense sodium deposits, which
are dissolved by natural courses of
water, either rain n underground
veins. and then carried to the lowest
ground, which in this case is the ba-
sin that contains the salt deposits.
ALI creeks in this vicinity discharg-
ing their water into this lake have
salt water before getting to a point
even several feet higher than the sur
face water of the lake, which has no
communication whatever with the
SCds IL 10 0lAlJ lCul lOL1 UilCSG CIcChS
flowing from the adjacent hills and
mountains. According to tests made
on the ground, where standing pools
of water from four to eight feet
higher than the lake were found in
the creeks, the water on the westside
of the lake contains more sodium
than that on the east side, due it is
thought to the fact that a much larg-
er deposit of sodium exists in the
mountains to the west of the lake.
The salt found on this island is of a
very superior quality and is believed
to be the only pure, white, natural,
refined salt-deposit or minc-in ex-
istence. Guy Lussac, in his chemica!
analysis of the Carmen Island sail.
defines it as follows: Natural sea
salt, or rock salt, in a state of purity.
consists of 60 per cent. of chlorine
and 40 per cent. of sodium. Its spe-
ci1c gravity varies from 2 to 2.25.
This important species of the saline
class possesses even in mass a crystal
line structure, derived from the cube.
which is its primitive FORM" In it's
natural deposit it is found in even
layers from five to eight inches in
thickness. 1t forms even and pure
white crystals, and is ready for the
mill as taken from the lake. When
fine table salt is required no other re-
filming process is needed than that of
milling.
The supply is incxhaustible. The
actual deposit, extending over 62O
acres, at a uniform depth of twelve
feet, gives $40, 10, 900 cubic feet, or
II, Jas, 92s tons of pure, perfectly re-
fined salt. AS soon as the workmen
have excavatcd a given number of
cubic feet they abandon the site and
operate at another point. In the
first cavity the brine comes quickly