The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1900-08-04
I OKLAHOMA'S SALT PLAINS
Hundreds Of Square Niles Covered lnchdo
Deep With Salt. i

Ueep Win Sdlt. 4
Sixteen miles from Augusta, now aA
Stunning Importance as new railway
terminus, lies the smallest of the two
great salt plains of Oklahoma. Its
area embraces nearly 100 square miles,
1t measures ten miles east and weS1
and across its centre and twelve miles
north and south. The salt deposit is
from one inch to four inches deep.
Its elevation of 1920 feet above sea
level Is about the average of Woods
County. No trust seeks to control it.,
and the sun, which shines for the poor
as well as the rich, never entirely shuts
down its evaporating plant In the des-
ert are saline springs, the source of
pools and lagoons where the water
spreads in the suns rays and passes
away in vapor, leaving the salt deposit.
The shifting winds of centuries have
blown this salt beyond the natural
boundaries of the pools, yet ten years
shows very little encroachment on the
tillable land around.
During hot days one Of the most
active springs deposits salt in the form
of an ant hill, from the apex of which
tiny stream of saline water trickles
down, leaving scanned, porous base.
The action of the wind completes the
work and column of chlorate of So
dunn is formed, but does not stand
long, for the erosion continues and the
column soon breaks at the bottom and
falls. With true American persever-
ance the little spring begins again and
the process is repeated. This curiosity
has it's archetype in Holy Writ. It's
sobriquet of Lots Wife," however,
does not prove the hypothesis that it
is an exempiification of the ancient
pillar of salt, which has none of these
suggestive repetitiOns. When Lot
found his wife transformed into a pill
lar of salt he was wise enough to let
it go at that and not take fresh one.
Over the west county line in Wood
ward County is another salt plain dou-
BILE the size of the one near Augusta.
Blocks of salt cut in Woods County
have been exhibited in Augusta and
government tests show them to be SO
per cent pure and possessed of the
same properties and strength as sea
salt. This saline product of the plains
is too far from a railroad now to be
available for commercial purposes. but
previous to the settlement of the Cher
okee strip hundreds Of fat cattle grazed
ON the nutritious buffalo grass which
grew close up to the saline deposits;
they were never known to stray far,
and cattlemen came from a distance
and carried away big loads of salt
for herds grazing elsewhere.
On the first sight the salt appears
like lake of shimmering water. The
view inspires view of foam-crested
waves ripping over the sand. In the
days when Oklahoma was known as
the promised Land many an emf
grant, plodding along by jaded team
in the arid heat of midsummer, has
seen one of these two salt plains and
shouted for joy. Expecting to hear
ilIuiuf SlS ilOAu tfhJ WoNSc iuPPih6
idly against wet sand, nothing breaks
the silence of the lonesome waste save
the crunch of booted feet in the dry
salt.
Last December, while crossing the
edge of one of the saline plains, car
AVIAN happened in the path Of storm.
The lowering clowds of blackness
made a grim setting for the silvery |
white plain. The horses, heated from
exertion in the previous warm air,
in the sudden change in tenn
perature. The wind blast, Jelly cold, |
as though from the far north, put
new life and vigor into man and beast. |
Dust rolled up in white cloud from |
which shrapnel. in the shape Of coarse |
salt, which we thought to be sleet |
the eyes that dared watch |
the spectacle, and winnowed season
ing, sifted superfine salt, left smart
ing in eyes and salty taste on lips.