Early Historic Salt-making Sites in South Arkansas

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Shifting Borders: Early-19th Century Archeology in the Trans-Mississippi South" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

South central and southwest Arkansas both have an abundance of salt licks, salt springs, salt creeks, and salt marshes. Indigenous people established a number of sites for making salt, and early American settlers developed some of these sites into commercial saltworks. Smaller than the industrial sites in Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, and other states, these installations filled a need for a basic commodity at a reasonable price. This presentation is an overview of five these sites, from c. 1819 to c. 1840, ending with a closer look at the largest of the sites, the Hickman Site (3SV69) in Sevier County.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Shifting Borders: Early-19th Century Archeology in the Trans-Mississippi South   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology