The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-10-05
SAW SEA OF SALT
SOMETHING OF THE SALINE RE
SERVE OF THE CHEROKEE STRIP.
An Ocean of the Pure White Stuff Glistens
In the Sunlight-Sixty-Five Square Miles
OF Natural Salt. Ready for Use, a Waste
on the Prairie-lt Is Worth Millions of
Dollars but the Government has Re-
served it Doubtless for Some Corporate
Octopus-Largest Surface Body of Salt
in the World.

Guthrie, o. T, Oct. 4-(SpeciaI.) 1.-The
Manchester Journal this week says:
There are thousands Of people in this
country who have never seen anything
half so grand. so beautiful and so pic
turesqe as the salt plains. Even hun
dreds of our home people residing with
In few hours drive of these plains
have never yet taken the trouble to
view them in all their grandeur.
ION Saturday last a party composed
Of j. n. Simmons and wife Of Memphis,
Tenn, Master Percy and Tommy Sim
mons, B. S. Shepherd and wife and
daughter Meta Of Hawley, o. T., and
the editor Of the Journal made trip
TO the salt plains.
The eastern saline reserve, or salt
plains as Ii is commonly called, is Sit
uated principally in township 26, ranges
and 10, and lies along the south side
Of the Salt F ork river. 1t is about
fifteen miles south from the Kansas
line to the north boundary of this re-
serve, and the distance from MancheS-
ter to the nearest point in a southwest
erly direction is about twenty-five miles.
This body of salt earth Git could not
be called land) contains an area of
acres. 1t is a natural basin, the bed
Of which is almost as level as a floor
and smooth as carpet. The entire sur
face from one end to the o ther, is COM
posed of a thin crust of very fine white
salt, mixed very slightly with a fine
red sand and underlaid with sand. salt
and water which in a few places re-
sembleS Quick-Sand not a little; but the
main surface of the reserve is as hard
ILL 4
a vehicle well loaded glides over it
without scarcely leaving track and as
easily and with no more noise than
would be made in riding over a nicely
carpeted floor.
The white glistening salt in the sun
shine has a telling effect on the eye
sight, as much so as does snow in mid
winter. After driving out over the salt
plains three or four miles the sights
grow more beautiful and inviting in
that one almost entirely loses sight Of
land and there is nothing to gaze upon
but the broad eXpanse of the plains, eX-
cept that here and there may be seen
the well bleached bones of cow, a gray
wolf or the horns and head of buffalo
which was slain by the Indians or white
men years ago. There is also an oc-
casional limb or root of a tree to be
seen, but all such obstacles are few
and far between and when one does
find them they are mostly white with a
very thick covering of salt.
1.-The only vestige Of growing vegeta-
ton found on these plains is what we
would call salt moss. 1t is very scar e.
comparatively speaking, and resembles
what is commonly called ''perSley," eX-
cept that its growth is many times
smaller. 1t lies very close on the sur
face and the many little branches are
seemingly crystalized in salt.
THE level bed Of this salt basin is
almost as low as the bed of the Salt
Fork river which forms it's northern
boundary and during the rainy season
when the waters are very high it is
transformed into vast lake.
''At the opening of the Cherokee Out
let this great salt basin-the largest in
the United States-was reserved by the
government, but for what use we can
not say. Perhaps some day gigantic
corpora Jon will purchase it outright
and establish thereon the greatest salt
mandatory in the known world. The
reserve at its longest point north and
south is twelve miles by nine and one
half miles east and west
There are two other similar saline
reserves in the strip country, one of
which is seven by nine miles and lies
fifty miles directly west of the eastern
reserve and along the Cimarron river
The third reserve is three by four miles,
anso on the Cimarron river, and lies
seventy-siX miles derectly west of Man.
chester. 1t is known as the western
saline reserve. But while the middle
reserve does not in area come up to the
eastern reserve, it far excells it in ma
tural salt productiveness. 1t contains
great beds Of pure rock salt as many
people in this country can testify who
have gone there and hauled it away
wagon load at time.
IN the eyes of many people the
worlds fair, Niagara Falls, Pixies Peak
and the Rockies would all sink into in
significance when compared with the
salt plains of Oklahoma.
For pleasure riding, baseball play
ing, bicycle riding and various other
amusements. the eastern saline reserve
would beat the world. It is we'll worth
looking at if you dive in the United
States.