The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-17
SALT PLAINS.
Hundreds Of Square Miles Of Them in
Oklahoma.
CKansas City Starr

kansas City Starr
sixteen miles from Augusta, now assum-
ing importance as 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 Il, and
the sun, which shines for the Door as well
as the rich, never entirely shuts down
Its cooperating plant In the desert are
saline springs, the source Of pools and Ia
goons 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
pool yet ten years shows very little en-
enactment on the ttIlable 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 AmeFf-
can perseverance the little spring begins
again and the process is repeated. This
curiosity has its arched type IN Holy
Writ Its COubTiquet Npf Lots Wife -
however, does not prove the hypothesis
that IT is an complication of the ancient
pillar of salt which has none Of these
suggestive TepeutiOns- When Lot found
his wife transformed into pillar OF salt
he was wise enough TO let it so 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 have been
exhibited in Augusta, and government
tests show them to be IS 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 pur-
poses, but previous to the settlement of
the Cherokee strip hundreds Of fat cat
tie EraZed on the nutritious buffalo grass
which grew close un to the saline de-
pOsits: 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 q vision of TOam-creSted waves rip
nlng, over the Sand, In the days when
Oklahoma was known as the promised
land many an emigrant, plOdding along
by a jaded team III the arid heat of mid
summer, has been one Of these two salt
plains and shouted for JOY. Expecting 10
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. q 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 eNertiOn In the prev
ious warm air, shivered in the sudden
change of teupera ture. The wind blast,
Jelly cold as though from the far north.
put new life and vig0r into man and beast
Dust rolled uD III a white cloud from
which shraDnel, in the shape of coarse
salt which We thought TO be sleet, bonn
barded the eyes that dared watch the
spectacle and wiunOwed seasoning, sifted.
superfine salt left smarung in eyes and
a salty taste on lips.