How Morton Salt Helped Put This Texas Town On The Map
Recognizable by its round canisters featuring a girl with her signature umbrella and yellow dress, Morton Salt has been a pantry staple since 1848. The company has a variety of ways of obtaining different types of salt, including traditional salt mines, solar sites, where saline water is evaporated leaving behind crystals of sodium chloride, and evaporation sites, at which underground salt deposits are harvested using vacuum pans (via Morton Salt's website).
Per East Texas, the small city of Grand Saline, known as "The Salt Capital of Texas," is located "at the top of the largest and purest salt dome in the United States" and Morton Salt, the "town's largest employer," has been mining the area since the 1930s. The salt deposit there is estimated to be around 250 million years old. According to the Salt Palace Museum in Grand Saline, salt has been extracted here since the 800s. Mental Floss estimates that there is enough salt here to supply the world's population for 20,000 years.
Grand Saline has its own museum made from salt
When headed for a visit to Grand Saline, be sure to stop by the Salt Palace and Visitors Center, which, according to East Texas, is built from pure rock salt, is complete with its own gift shop, and contains exhibits about the salt history of the area. There are also displays about famous people from Grand Saline, per the Salt Palace Museum, and community events including holiday happenings and city parades (via Facebook). According to the Grand Saline Economic Development Corporation, the area also contains salt flats, which are home to "unique wildlife," that visitors can explore.
Grand Saline residents past and present, including Christian music star Chris Tomlin, are proud of their city and its economic viability. Tomlin said, on a visit to his hometown, that being raised in the city kept him levelheaded, even with his fame. "Being from Grand Saline really gives you a sense of where you come from," Tomlin shared (via KLTV).