Early Industrialization

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Early Industrialization
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Salt

• Salt was required as a preservative for the meat
  industry.
• Coal was formed in saltwater marshes. So the two
  resources were commonly found together.
• Major salt production occurred in the Kanawha
  Valley, Saltville VA, Clay Co. KY.

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• To produce the salt, fresh water was pumped into
  the ground to dissolve the mineral, then pumped
  back out.
• The brine was the boiled to get the salt.
• This required either wood or coal to boil the
  kettles of brine.

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Dickenson Salt Works
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Hartford City Coal and Salt Company
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Salt workers
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Depiction of Kanawha River Salt Works
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Iron

• Early manufacturing of iron required huge amounts
  of charcoal.
• Only as time went on would stonecoal replace
  charcoal.
• The production of charcoal, in turn, required
  huge amounts of hardwood.

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• Some furnaces required as much as a acre of
  forest a day.
• The pile, consisting of 20-50 cord of wood, would
  be covered with leaves and then soil to control
  the burn.
• The pile had to be watched carefully during the
  burn to prevent either flaming or extinguishing
  the burn.

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• Once the wood was reduced to charcoal, it would
  be raked and hauled to the furnace.
• A cord of wood might produce 35-45 bushels of
  charcoal. (A cord is 4 x 4 x8. An acre of
  mature forest would contain no more than 30
  cords.)
• A blast furnace producing 2 tons of iron per day
  would consume 300 acres of timberland per year.
  (Davis, 148-149)

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• In addition to the charcoal, a water source to
  drive the bellows and to cool the iron was
  needed.
• Iron ore and limestone completed the materials.
• The Great Smoky Mountains were originally known
  as the Great Iron Mountains.
• Pigeon Forge was named so because of the forge.

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• By the 1830s Kentucky was the third largest
  producer of iron products in the country.
  (Davis, 150)

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Copper

• Mining began in the Copper Basin of north GA/east
  TN in 1850.
• A road was built along the Oconee River to
  Cleveland TN, the nearest rail line.
• To extract the copper, the ore was placed on huge
  piles of cord wood which were burned.

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• The burning released sulfur gasses which killed
  the surrounding vegetation.
• After this, the ore was smelted, requiring large
  amounts of charcoal. One copper company consumed
  500,000 bushels of charcoal a year.

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Copper Mine
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Copper Basin Erosion
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Sulphuric Acid Plant
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Mine and Plant
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And yes, Whiskey

• With corn the major agricultural product of the
  region, whiskey has to be listed as an industrial
  product. It has certainly affected the perception
  of the region.

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• One contributing factor to whiskey production in
  Appalachia was the cost of transporting grain.
  Whiskey is easier, doesnt spoil, and brings
  cash.
• Many families made whiskey for their own
  medicinal use.
• A whiskey tax, removed by Jefferson in 1802, and
  except for three years, not reimposed until 1862,
  is what distinguished the moonshiner from the
  industrious farmer.

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• Prohibition, and then local option laws, provided
  the economic incentive to continue making illegal
  whiskey.
• Today, the money is in illegal drugs, from
  marijuana to oxycodone.

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