Cambria Salt Mine
Midway between Newcastle and Four Corners

In the early days of the development of the Black Hills, the nearest railroad was nearly 200 miles away. Wagon transportation costs to the mines were high, so a bulky, yet necessary, commodity like salt had high value. Springs with a heavy salt content were discovered in the canyon below on July 8, 1877. In November, 1878, James LeGraves came to the area to produce salt for the growing Black Hills mining market. He erected a furnace with two evaporating pans, the larger of the two being six feet wide and sixty feet long. For the next six years LeGraves produced salt by evaporating off spring water during the summer months and shipping his product to the mining districts. Some of the salt went to the general stores of Deadwood and Lead but its chief use was in chloridizing the gold and silver ores mined in the Black Hills.

N. H. Darton reported in 1904 that the spring along Salt Creek flowed at the rate of about 1 gps (gallon per second) and the water contained a little more than 5% sodium chloride (salt). According to Darton’s calculations, about 35,000 pounds of salt were produced every 24 hours.

The Cambria Salt Company was organized in 1907 and prepared to manufacture and refine salt for the large western market. In an unsuccessful effort to locate the bed of rock salt from which the brine comes, several wells were drilled, one having a depth of 825 feet. The evaporating and purifying plant, arranged for coal fuel, was located over the divide to the west near the Cambria coal mine and the brine was pumped to it.

The Cambria Salt Company failed. The company’s equipment was sold at a bankruptcy sale May 11, 1909 essentially ending salt production at the Salt Mine.