The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-06-23
SALT PLAINS.
Hundreds of Square Miles of Them in
Oklahoma.
(Kansas City Starr

)
| Sixteen miles from Augusta now asSum-
ing Importance as a new railway termin-
us, lies the smallest of the two great salt
! plains of Oklahoma. Its area embraces
nearly 100 square miles 1t measures ten
miles east and west and across its CEN
ter and twelve miles north and south The
salt deposit is from one inch to four inches
deep. Its elevation is 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
It's eVaporating plant. In the desert are
same springs, the source of pools and la
gOOnS where the water spreads in the
sun rays and passes away in vapor,
winds of centuries have blown this salt
beyond the natural boundaries of the
pool yet ten years shows very little en-
croachment 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 a tiny
stream of saline water trickles down,
leaving scanned, porous base. The action
OF the wind completes the work and a
column OF chlOrate of sodium is formed
but does not stand long, for the erosion
continues and the column soon breaks at
the bottom and falls. With true Ameri-
can perseverance the little spring begins
again and the process is repeated. This
curiosity has its arched type in Holy
however, does not prove the hypothesis
that 1t IS an exemplifCation of the ancient
pillar OF salt which has none of these
suggestive repetitions When Lot found
his wife transformed into a pillar of salt
ne 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 double
the size of the one near Augustus. Blocks
OF salt cut in Woods county nave been
exhibited in Augusta, and government
tests show ha
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 pur-
poses, but, previous to the settlement of
the Cherokee strip hundreds of fat cat
tie grazed on the nutritious buffalo grass
which grew close uD to the saline de-
postts; they We're never known to stray
far. and cattlemen came from a distance
and carted away big loads of salt for
herds grazing elsewhere
On first sight the salt appears like a
lake of shimmering water The view in
spires a vision of foam-crested waves rip
ping over the sand. In the days when
Oklahoma was known as the promised
land many an emigrant, plodding along
by jaded team in the arid heat of mid
summer, has been one of these two salt
hear liquid signs from tiny waves tapping
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, a caravan
happened in the path of a storm. The
lowering clouds of blackness made a grim
setting for the silvery white plain The
horses, heated from exertion in the prev
ious warm air, shivered in the sudden
change of temperature. The wind blast,
icily cold, as though from the far north,
put new life and vigor into man and beast.
Dust rolled up in a white cloud from
which shrapnel, in the shape of coarse
salt. which we thought to be sleet, bonn
barded the eyes that dared watch the
spectacle, and winnowed seasoning, sifted,
superfine salt left smarting in eyes and
a salty taste on lips.