Contents
of page
Salt
Uses
Duck Key's Salt Ponds
Salt
Uses
The
chemical compound Sodium Chloride (NaCl) is more commonly
referred to as salt. Salt is an essential element
because, although it is necessary for both the human and
animal diet, the human body does not have the ability to
produce salt on its own. Other uses for salt include food
processing, food preservation, chemical production and
deicing on highways and roadways.
Necessary
as a preservative in the days before refrigeration, salt
was a highly prized commodity. In the early 1800s there
was no canning industry, and no chemical preservatives to
help keep food fresh and edible. Food was preserved
either by smoking, pickling, drying, packing in sugar
syrup, and salting. Salt was used to pickle vegetables
and cure hams. About 40 pounds of salt per person per
year was needed for preserving food.
In
Roman times, soldiers were paid their wages in salt which
they called salarium. Thus the English work for pay
became salary. In the Middle Ages salt was such as
precious commodity that one's status was denoted by his
position at the dining table in relation to the location
of the salt. The salt was always placed close to the king
and important nobility. To be "beneath the salt" meant
you were not seated close to the king and were therefore,
of lesser stature.
Salt
played a featured role in the settlement of the country.
Early settlers in the Keys, surrounded by seawater,
believed that the manufacture of salt through the
collection and evaporation of seawater was the best means
of making the Keys known to the commercial
world.
Duck
Keys Salt Ponds
Historic
documents indicate that two large salt ponds existed on
the island of Duck Key during the late 1820's through
1840's. The Duck Key salt ponds which predate salt ponds
later to be established in Key West, were the first
venture of this type in the Keys. It is not known who
first built Duck Key's salt ponds, but records do
indicate that a Charles Howe moved from Key West to Duck
Key in 1831 with his wife , Anne Cole, his one year old
son, Charles Jr. and three year old daughter, Sarah Ann.
It
is thought that Charles Howe operated the salt ponds with
the help of several slaves. An 1830 Key's census shows
Howe owning three male and several female slaves. High
temperatures, and standing barefooted in brine all day
made the work laborious. The bright sun reflecting off
the sea water and salt crystals contributed to the
beginning of blindness. Boils developed on skin
constantly exposed to brine and cuts failed to
heal.
In
June of 1831 Anne Howe gave birth to Edward Cole Howe, the
first child to be born on Duck Key. In 1833 Howe's wife
died in childbirth at the age of 32. Later the infant
girl, Ann, died in Key West at the age of 18 months.
Later records from 1836 show Howe supervising Duck Key
salt production, but living in Indian Key where he was
Post Master and Customs agent. Howe is again mentioned in
the literature as having an interest in Duck Key's salt
ponds and buying a controlling interest in the Key West
Ponds in 1843.
A reference to Howe was made John Lee Williams in his 1837 Territory of Florida. Williams wrote that Howe had died: "Duck Key is a narrow rocky islet, containing some fine salt ponds. Mr. Howe, from Charleston, made a considerable establishment on the island for the purpose of making salt, but having died since, the project has been abandoned. It is about two miles long."
It is likely that Williams was mistaken about Howe's death, because all other references of Howe seem to suggest that he lived on and died many years later in Massachusetts in 1873.
There is a historic record of Howe's son, Charles Jr. marrying a Mary Ann Johnson of Duck Key in 1852.
The
process by which salt was made on Duck Key is not
recorded, but a system similar to that of Key West's salt
pond harvesters probably was used. Duck Key may have been
selected because it had several natural, shallow, inland
depressions which filled with salt water directly from
the sea providing conditions perfect for
saltmaking.
Duck
Key's salt ponds most likely were improved with the
construction of earthen or rock bordered walls and small
wooden flood gates which could open to capture the flow
of seawater.
Picture
showing small wooden flood gate of a salt pond.
salt pond partitions
Ponds
were partitioned into sections or "pans" to be filled by
the incoming tide. Sea water entered through sluice gates
located at the shoreline. Water was concentrated by
evaporation in one pond, then moved to another for
additional concentration. The slushy brine was then moved
into smaller drying pans to evaporate further under the
sun's heat leaving salt crystals. The crystals which were
an eighth to a quarter inch in size were then gathered
(raked) and made ready for transport. The cycle took
several months from start to finish, but " salt crops"
from several sets of pans allowed for harvesting in 20 to
30 days periods.
Salt
harvesting was a laborious task. Workers raked the
crystalized salt into piles and shoveled it into
wheelbarrows. The salt was then dumped in large heaps for
storage.
Image below is an early aerial photo of Duck Key from around 1955. Visable are the old salt pond areas of the island from the early 1800s.
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