March 6, 2011

Salt making is one of Arkansas’s earliest industries, conducted by Native Americans hundreds of years before the first Europeans entered present-day Arkansas in 1541. The area near Arkadelphia (Clark County) was one of the most productive operations, even into the mid-nineteenth century. This 200-gallon kettle is said to have been used by John Hemphill in one of the area’s early operations, even before Arkansas became a territory in 1819.