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Scioto Salt Works Historical Marker

Location of sign - Main Street Jackson, Ohio

Photo taken -  September 2007

Photo courtesy of Jimmy Wayne

Text of sign:

The Scioto Salt Works

Joseph Conklin from Mason County, Kentucky, who came to this area in 1795, is credited with being the first American to 

establish a salt operation at the Scioto Salt Licks. Conklin was a squatter and did not own the land. In 1803, soon after Ohio 

became a state, the new legislature passed an act regulating salt works, thereby forbidding the state from selling salt lands. 

Therefore Conklin and others who followed leased the land for their salt operations. Salt production reached its peak between 

1808-1810 with hundreds of men producing 62,000 bushels annually. Richer and more cheaply produced salt brine was 

discovered in what is now West Virginia. Wells sunk to reach stronger brine here proved unsuccessful. In 1826, a salt agent's 

legislative report stated, The making of salt at the Scioto Salt Works has been entirely abandoned.

2006 Jackson Historical Society, City of Jackson, The Ohio Historical Society

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