THE  SALT  INDUSTRY  IN  UTAH  AND  CALIFORNIA. 
By  Edwin  C.  Eckel. 
During  the  field  season  of  1903  the  writer  was  enabled  to  spend  a 
few  days  in  the  study  of  the  salt  industry  near  Great  Salt  Lake,  Utah, 
and  on  San  Francisco  Bay,  California.  A  brief  description  of  the 
practice  at  these  two  localities  is  presented  in  this  paper.  A  more 
detailed  discussion  will  appear  later  in  a  Survey  bulletin  on  the  saline 
deposits  of  the  United  States. 
The  writer's  acknowledgments  are  due  to  the  officers  of  the  Inland 
Crystal  Salt  Company,  the  California  Salt  Company,  and  the  Carmen 
island  Salt  Company,  to  all  of  whom  he  is  indebted  for  valuable  data 
and  courtesies  received  at  the  works. 
The  two  salt-producing  areas  to  be  described  in  the  present  paper 
are  of  peculiar  interest,  for  they  contain  the  largest  solar-evaporation 
plants  in  the  United  States.  While  thus  agreeing  in  method  of 
treatment,  the  practice  in  the  two  districts  differs  because  of  differ- 
ences in  the  degree  of  concentration  of  the  brine.  The  brine  pumped 
from  Salt  Lake,  Utah,  is  highly  concentrated,  carrying  over  20  per 
cent  of  saline  matters,  and  being,  therefore,  free  from  calcium  sulphate, 
which  has  been  deposited  naturally  at  an  earlier  stage  in  the  evapora- 
tion of  the  lake  water.  The  water  of  San  Francisco  Ba}7,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  rather  less  salt  than  that  of  the  open  sea,  and  its  gypsum  must 
be  precipitated  at  the  works. 
SALT  INDUSTRY  IN  UTAH. 
Though  a  certain  small  amount  of  salt  is  still  made  from  salt  ponds 
in  other  portions  of  the  State,  all  the  product  which  enters  the  market 
is  manufactured  by  solar  evaporation  at  various  points  along  the  bor- 
der of  Great  Salt  Lake. 
As  is  well  known,  Great  Salt  Lake  is  but  the  remnant  of  an  im- 
mensely greater  body  of  water.  This  earlier  body,  called  Lake  Bonne- 
ville, was  reduced  by  evaporation  to  its  present  size,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  became  a  highly  concentrated  solution. 
Specific  gravity  and  total  solid  content. — As  shown  in  the  table  below, 
the  water  of  Great  Salt  Lake  has  varied  considerably  in  its  degree  of 
concentration  even  during  the  comparatively  short  period  which  has 
elapsed  since  the  settlement  of  Utah.  If  the  records  can  be  relied 
upon,  it  was  at  its  point  of  maximum  concentration  when  sampled  by 
Stansbury  in  1850.  From  that  date  until  some  time  in  the  seventies 
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