SALT ENTERPRISE IN MICHIGAN. 281 



one survivor of the period when the "wild cat" was very 

 troublesome in Michigan, one of the fourteen or fifteen 

 hundred who have claimed that they were associated with 

 Dr. Houghton in his public work, now asserts that Dr. 

 Hough ton privately whispered in his ear that he put the 

 state wells on the Tittaba \vassee. and Grand rivers for the 

 purpose of diverting attention from the Saginaw, the real 

 center of the salt formation! 



With profound respect for the real ability of Dr. Hough- 

 ton, with an unreserved recognition of the importance of 

 his services in the upper peninsula, I feel compelled to 

 record the opinion that the time has arrived for dispell- 

 ing some of the myths which have lingered about his 

 memory, and for denying, with the proofs, that he had 

 any correct knowledge of the geology of the brines of 

 Michigan, or ever imagined that the most promising re- 

 gion for salt enterprise was located in the Saginaw val- 

 ley. The existing conception respecting the geology of 

 Michigan brines, on which an immense and widespread 

 industry has been built up, have been originated in later 

 times, and by other investigators. The author regrets, 

 nevertheless, that his own connection with the later de- 

 velopments, and his personal relation to facts and their 

 bearings upon each other, have been such that a correct 

 and adequate exposition of the historical data could not 

 have been offered from some other pen. A full history 

 of the progress of ideas and the succession of projects 

 and enterprises connected with salt development in Michi- 

 gan, placed on record and published by authority, would 

 constitute a document of deep interest to the people of 

 Michigan, and a record whose value to the general public 

 would increase with every passing decade. 



