Sidebar by Central Staff
Salt Works – July 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine
The reputation of Lawyers in the Good Old Days
…the first and only salt works in Colorado. When these works were erected, in 1864, all the salt used in this whole western country had to be freighted in wagons from the Missouri river, 700 miles away, at a cost, for freight alone, of from four to 20 cents per pound. When the springs, near the works were discovered, they were thought to be very valuable, and no little contention arose as to the title. However, the first claims were settled and the business of salt making sprung up, and soon became very profitable. Then, as is too often the case in the west, litigation commenced between the owners, followed by injunction after injunction until all parties interested were impoverished. Meanwhile the railroads were advancing day by day, which meant cheap salt….We hear that it has been recently decided, now that the works are valueless, the litigants plucked, and the railroads have destroyed rich prospects. Moral: If you have a good business look out for, and keep out of the lawyers’ hands, they are hungry fellows always hunting a fat “grub stake.”
Crofutt’s Grip-Sack Guide of Colorado, 1885
