Colorado Salt Works

The Colorado Salt Works, on Salt Works Ranch in Park County, Colorado near Hartsel, Colorado, is a site where salt springs flow and were used in salt harvesting in the late 1860s. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The salt works were established in 1862, by Charles L. Hall, who bought out a small operation nearby and expanded production in new buildings in 1866. The expansion was funded by a partnership, Rollins, Lane and Hall, which brought in investors George W. Lane and John Quincy Adams Rollins. The Kettle House (1866) is a two-story L-shaped building with a 50 feet (15 m) chimney, which held large pans of No. 12 iron and boiler iron, iron kettles, and drying and storage areas. It was fitted out with 18 boiling kettles, each 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter, weighing more than.5 short tons (450 kg) and costing $1,500 each, delivered. The Salt Works Barn (c.1866), similar in appearance, is a second contributing building on the site. It was deemed significant as...a rare, perhaps only, surviving example of an 1860s kettle and pan salt production facility in the United States. Salt was in high demand in that era as an element used in processing gold ores, and also for domestic and agricultural uses. Before the railroads arrived, salt had to be shipped overland by wagon from Missouri and brought prices as high as seven cents per pound in

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