ABSTRACT The geology of the Saltville Valley in southwest Virginia creates a brine with an exceptionally high concentration of sodium chloride (98.7%). Because of this resource, the town of Saltville, Virginia, became the major producer of salt for the Confederacy during the latter half of the Civil War. The wood-fired salt furnaces (as the production facilities were called) produced a maximum of four million bushels of salt from this naturally occurring brine in 1864. However, these massive nineteenth-century furnaces are no longer standing. Industrial archaeology, with its goal of chronicling and preserving the history of industrial development, is used to document two of these salt furnaces—one (44SM280) in operation in the late eighteenth century when salt production was beginning, and the other (44SM139) in operation during the Civil War. Increasing size and sophistication in the exposed foundations of these structures is illustrated by the shift from predominantly stone-walled furnaces to later, larger structures with stacked brick walls. The size of the iron kettles used to cook the brine also increased to a 100-gallon capacity. These excavations corroborate historic descriptions of salt manufacture and provide important physical evidence of nineteenth-century industrial development.

中文翻译：

---

弗吉尼亚州萨尔特维尔 18 和 19 世纪的盐生产

摘要 弗吉尼亚州西南部 Saltville 山谷的地质构造产生了氯化钠浓度 (98.7%) 异常高的盐水。由于这种资源，弗吉尼亚州的萨尔特维尔镇在内战后半期成为南部邦联的主要盐产地。1864 年，燃木盐炉（正如生产设施所称）从这种天然存在的盐水中最多生产了 400 万蒲式耳的盐。然而，这些 19 世纪的大型盐炉已不复存在。工业考古学的目标是记录和保存工业发展的历史，被用来记录这些盐炉中的两个——一个 (44SM280) 在 18 世纪后期开始生产盐时运行，另一个 (44SM139) 在内战期间的行动。这些结构暴露在外的地基的尺寸和复杂程度不断增加，这体现在从以石墙为主的熔炉到后来的更大的堆叠砖墙结构的转变。用来煮盐水的铁壶的容量也增加到 100 加仑。这些发掘证实了对盐业的历史描述，并提供了 19 世纪工业发展的重要实物证据。