C.S.A. Salt Works

The creek that fed the works is Salt Creek, which runs about twelve miles to the Colorado, and the Lampasas County history dates a Swenson and Swisher saltworks there to 1858, three years before the war. A separate account calls the place Swenson Salines, eight miles from Lometa. After the surrender several private operators tried to keep it going before it was abandoned, and one county account still names three men running a salt works in the county in 1870. The springs lie on private land, off the highway, with no public way in.

What the plaque says

C.S.A. Salt Works West of here, on the Colorado. Brine springs used by Indians as infirmary or health resort. Increased operations in Civil War to make Army supply, for the men, cavalry horses and mule teams; and for general use for table and ranch purposes. To pump brine from the spring, a horse driven in a circle operated a lift that filled troughs upon a 40-foot-high scaffold. Cedar boughs placed in the troughs concentrated the brine, which filtered down into iron kettles that boiled one bushel of salt out of 50 bushels of brine. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Bend State Park — 13 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.
• Hancock Springs Park — 17 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.

More markers nearby

• Lometa — 0.5 mi
• Scholten Railroad — 0.6 mi
• Operation Long Horn — 0.9 mi
• Phantom Hill Road — 1.9 mi