November 6, 1803

The Saline River Salt Works

On the Ohio off the Mouth of Tenessee Novr. 3d. 1803.

The most distant Excursion I have had since I wrote was to the Saline Creek Salt Spring 20 miles below the Wabash River—For this Purpose we stoped at what is Called the Shawnee Towns 12 miles below Wabash which place instead of presenting anything like a Town or Houses is Nothing but a Ledge of Rocks forming a rising pavemnt. from the water to the hill shore which makes it a fine Landing Place

a new road is Cut from this place to the Great Salt Lake Spring—on the 29th Ult. at 4 oClock P. M. I set off with my Umbrella in my hand to walk to the Spring with Mr. Williams who took my gun and ammunition—we reached there at 8 oClock and too late to see anything as it was dark that is only moonlight long before we got there—

All the Country round this place is wilderness and not Even a House or Settlement at the Works all the Cover they have is a Large Shed over the Salt works the Eve of which is at least 8 ft high and the Sides all open and only the ground to lie on and that very hard and uneven and filthy . . . . we were obliged to Encamp there for the night neither had they anything to Eat or drink their meat and whisky being out but we had taken a Bottle of whisky and Some Biscuit—

—They have 34 Kittles in their Furnace and Can make 15 bushells of Salt a day when they are Kept steadily at work—

—Flaherty says it takes 300 gall of water to make a bushel of Salt but some of his workmen said it did not take so much water—

Thomas Rodney^[2]Simon Gratz, “Thomas Rodney,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 43, no. 2 (1919), 134–37, journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/27526 accessed 8 September 2026

Related: The Fort Clatsop Salt Works

Federal Intervention

In the June 1803 Treaty of Fort Wayne, a coalition of Lenape Delaware, Shawnee, Miami, Potawatomi, and Kickapoo tribes ceded the salt springs on the Saline River. By 1807, at least one person was displeased with the arrangement:

The United States’ general government having reserved to itself the property of the scite of this town; the salt licks, and all the intermediate tract from Saline river, the inhabitants have no other tenure than the permission of the governour of the territory to reside there during his pleasure, so they make no comfortable improvements, although they appear to be in a very prosperous situation from their trade; so much so, that they say, that it would immediately become one of the most considerable towns on the river, if they could purchase lots in fee simple.—There were several trading boats at the landing, and more appearance of business than I had seen on this side Pittsburgh.
—Fortescue Cuming, 1807^[3]Fortescue Cuming, Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country: Through the States of Ohio and Kentucky, a voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a trip through the Mississippi territory, and … Continue reading

Because the salt works were now under the control of the United States government, the captains may have been asked—or they thought it their duty—to inspect the salt works there. See Searching for Salines.