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Geology of the Texas Salt Flats
Upon approaching the Guadalupe Mountains from the west, visitors
traveling east from the El Paso area will pass through a landscape
of barren beauty. The two highest peaks near this area include
Guadalupe Peak at 8,749 feet which is the highest peak in Texas and
El Capitan, a sheer cliff wall at 8,078 feet. The salt flats are a
remnant of an ancient, shallow lake that once occupied this area
during the Pleistocene Epoch, approximately 1.8 million years ago.
Salt collected here as streams drained mineral-laden water into
this basin. This major, elongated basin, also called a graben,
formed about 26 million years ago as faulting lifted the Guadalupe
Mountains and depressed the adjacent block of the Earth’s crust.
This area is approximately 60 miles long and 10 miles wide. At the
end of the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago, the lake
dried up as the climate became more arid. The salt deposits left
behind would later become a known as the Texas Salt Flats and would
be a precious resource for the people of the area.
Modern saline playas (the flat floor of a desert basin having
interior drainage) such as the Salt Flat area of Texas usually
create a shallow lake in the lowest parts of the basin during or
after heavy or prolonged rains. These areas have both low rainfall
and high evaporation rates. The area ground waters percolate
through nearby evaporative Permian strata and become charged with
considerable dissolved solids which further concentrate and lead to
very elevated salinities in the material left behind. The sediment
thickness in the basin is probably a few thousand meters and
includes coarse gravels and sands alternating with clays from the
weathering of the nearby mountains. There is no natural outlet for
this area so all drainage is internal and sediments become
finer-grained toward the basin’s center. The white gypsum and
halite (rock salt) which are typically left behind restrict
vegetation growth. In recent years floods have washed silt onto
much of the salt beds, providing just enough soil for a few plants
to grow, but some areas are as barren and white as in bygone times.
Halite or table salt is a colorless or white mineral which occurs
naturally as a cubic crystal and can be found in dried lakebeds in
arid climates. It is often mined or gathered from the surface to be
used in a variety of ways by man. This salt was a highly valued
commodity in the 1880s. It was such a valuable substance that it
was hauled by oxen and mule wagons for many hundreds of miles over
the southwest trail and arrived eventually in Chihuahua City. The
salt in this area was still being ‘mined’ into the 1950s.
History of Salt Mining
Salt was considered sacred to Native American tribes who lived in
the area. These people were the first to both use and appreciate
the salt deposits left in this area.
In 1692, Diego de Vargas used a Native American prisoner to lead an
expedition of 20 Spanish solders from Socorro through the Hueco
Mountains in search of salt deposits in and around the Guadalupe
Mountains. After a trip of four days, they discovered the salt
beds, collected a sample of the salt, and returned to New Spain
(Mexico). This expedition helped pave the way for future Spanish
expeditions to the Guadalupes. For the next one hundred ninety
years, the inhabitants of the El Paso region depended on salt from
these Salt Flats. After the American-Mexican War, the 5,000
Mexicans who chose to live in the El Paso valley region would
supplement their farming income by enduring the heat and threat of
Apache attack to collect salt. They would travel as far south as
Chihuahua to load their wagons with this precious resource. The El
Paso Valley communities would make a 70 mile, two day journey to
the salt beds and then transport the mineral by mule drawn wagons
back to Chihuahua and Sonora, where it was important trade item.
The salt was also sometimes used in Chihuahua for the smelting of
silver.
Prior to 1848, the salt beds, under Spanish law, were common land
not owned by any one individual. After 1848, under American law,
these were unclaimed lands, available to anyone who filed there.
The Mexicans, believing that everybody had the right to the salt,
never thought to file claims to the salt beds in the name of any
one individual or group.
The Salt War
The El Paso Salt War began in the late 1860’s as a struggle began
between El Paso businessmen W.W. Mills, Albert J. Fountain, and
Louis Cardis (and later a friend of Cardis’—District Judge Charles
Howard) in an attempt to acquire title to the salt deposits near
the base of the Guadalupe Mountains. Mexican Americans of the
valley communities, who had constructed the road and for years had
collected salt there for free, were now faced with the threat of
being charged salt collection fees.
By using political offices these businessmen tried to file for
rights to these salt flats and gain control of the land for either
personal or public use. Over time these men began to fight among
themselves and eventually Cardis was murdered by Howard. The area
Mexicans became enraged over these conflicts over the salt flats
and took matters into their own hands.
In early December, a wagon train of Mexicans from both sides of the
border left the valley, headed for the salt lakes. After a
confrontation with the accused murderer, Howard and several Texas
Rangers, a Mexican firing squad shot Howard, his agent and another
man who was accompanying him. Fort Bliss was reactivated and within
a few days, several detachments of troops and a posse of American
citizens arrived in San Elizario, killing and wounding an untold
number of people. The short lived war very nearly led to an armed
confrontation between the U.S. and Mexico. Eventually, the Salt
Flats were claimed by the United States and the Mexican community
was forced to pay for the salt they once collected for free on what
they considered communal land. The El Paso Salt War was not merely
a quarrel over control of the salt beds, but rather a struggle for
the economic and political future of the area.
As you drive either East or West on Texas Hwy. 180/62 you will
drive alongside the Salt Flats of Texas. Parking at the coordinates
will place you in a large, public pull-off area complete with a
granite marker beside the west bound lane of this road. You can
also park on the East bound side and walk across the highway if you
prefer. The historic plaque for this site has been moved
approximately 1.65 miles west of the granite marker at another
pulloff area on the eastbound side of the road. This road is not a
busy route and there will be no problem in parking at the gravel
pulloff from the road to view the plaque or marker. In order to log
this cache please:
1) visit the historic plaque in the area for the answers to the
questions and either take your picture at this location or at the
granite marker at the coordinates (neither marker should be
readable).
Answer the following questions from the informative plaque:
2) Who were the first two groups of people (Native Americans) to
use the resources of the salt flats?
3) What were the three ways in which Native Americans first used
the mineral resources from this area?
4) What animals are pictured on the plaque as pulling the wagons
which hauled salt from these flats to other areas?
5) Describe the color of the landscape at the earthcache
coordinates and the granite marker and give an estimate of how many
plants you see within the first 20’ by 20’ square plot immediately
around the coordinates where you have parked. What conclusions can
you draw about the existence of the plants in this area?
Please send your answers to these questions before logging your
cache (HOWEVER, you do not need to wait on a
response from me before logging this cache! All but one of your
answers are provided on the historical plaque and are easy to
answer.)—please do not log this cache if you do not have a
picture to post with your log.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)