When I was a mere high school kid, I made gun powder using salt peter I bought under the name potassium nitrate at the local drug store. It was white. Warren Wolff -----Original Message----- From: wnapier <[log in to unmask]> To: VA-ROOTS <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Mon, May 23, 2011 8:14 pm Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Salt - western Virginia Both the Confederate and Union troops relied on salt that was found in the Kanawha River valley. Per Wikipedia (gasp!), they used red salt. I don't know if it's red salt or not, but I do know that there was a lot of salt mining along the Kanawha in the Charleston area that was done by solution mining -- drilling wells to the salt layer, pumping in water, bringing it to the surface by another well (at least that's how I understand it). According to the W.Va. Geological and Economic Survey, the northern panhandle and north central West Virginia have huge salt deposits that are several thousand feet down. -----Original Message----- From: Sally Phillips <[log in to unmask]> To: VA-ROOTS <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Mon, May 23, 2011 3:05 pm Subject: Re: Saltpeter Revisited Sorry! Of course there's Saltville. Never mind. I think my exhausted brain needs to go home. --Sally --- On Mon, 5/23/11, Sally Phillips <[log in to unmask]> wrote: From: Sally Phillips <[log in to unmask]> Subject: [VA-ROOTS] Saltpeter Revisited To: [log in to unmask] Date: Monday, May 23, 2011, 3:31 PM Saltpeter again! If a slave was tasked with "mining salt" in Virginia from 1863-1865, is it fair to assume he mined saltpeter? Do we have other salt mining sites in Virginia? Many thanks for all the help with saltpeter in Virginia. I now know more about saltpeter than I ever thought I'd care to know! Sally Phillips To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html