What industry was productive near Winnfield from 1931 through 1965 but ceased abruptly in 1965 to the detriment of about 100 employees and the entire community? Local amateur historian, John Holland, reminded Rotarians that Winnfield’s economy was once bolstered by the Carey Salt Mine just a few miles out on Highway 84 at their meeting on June 12, 2024. Rotarian of the Day Kiah Beville, arranged Holland’s talk, which he presented at the Louisiana Political Museum which preserves memorabilia from the salt mine.
Winnfield native and life-long resident John Holland has delved into the history of our local salt mine. Holland’s grandfather was employed at the mine for many years and John went to the mining site frequently with him over the years.
In his research about the Carey Salt Mine, John learned the salt dome just west of Winnfield was discovered in 1929, and the mine was opened by Carey Salt Company in 1931. Carey purchased the property to tap into southern markets. Winnfield’s most famous native son, Huey Long, Louisiana’s governor at the time, was involved in the project of getting the mine open. Huey even had part of Highway 84 moved closer to the salt mine to reduce the company’s transportation costs.
Holland also learned of an underground salt museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, location of the first Carey Salt Mine. From the museum’s director, he obtained photographs of the local salt mine and its employees taken in the 1950’s and 1960’s by a photographer hired by the Carey Salt Company to record a pictorial history of the Carey plants and documents related to the salt mine here. This material—photographs, samples of salt and salt products, a map of the salt tunnels in the local mine and other memorabilia—is on display at the local museum.
John described the mining process—sinking a shaft into the salt deposit, placing dynamite charges in a specified location, setting off the blast, going down into the shaft and cleaning up the mess made by the blast, and moving salt chunks to the production facility where it was converted into granulated salt. The production plant was in a three-story building near the mine, where administrative employees, chemists and engineers were also housed.
As John told of the mine’s closing, the work of mining the salt was going on as usual on the day of the flooding. As they often did, workers placed dynamite charges in a designated location and set off. They would then return the next morning with the smoke cleared and do the cleanup. The following morning on this occasion, the miners discovered water entering the mine from an underground water source. The source of the water remains unidentified to this day.
Fortunately, no loss of life or limb resulted from the flood. Unfortunately, all employees lost their jobs that day, and many moved to other areas in search of new jobs.
For anyone interested in learning more about the salt mine, Holland recommends the book, Images of America: The Carey Salt Mine by Barbara C. Ulrich, which is, of course, available on Amazon.