Grand Turk and Salt Cay, World Leaders in Salting

Grand Turk and Salt Cay, World Leaders in Salting. . , The Turks Islands were once known as "the salt islands." Grand Turk and Salt Cay were the largest salt producers in the Americas in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Turks Islands salt was said to be of a very high purity or quality., The Turks Islands were originally settled by Bermudans, who came to rake salt in the 1660s. The shallow waters around the islands made salt mining a much easier process than Bermuda. By 1681, the lucrativeness of the industry and the desire to protect their resources caused the salt collectors to build the first permanent settlement on Grand Turk. As time went on, more Bermudans and their slaves permanently settled in Grand Turk and Salt Cay to develop salting into a permanent industry. Huge number of trees were felled to discourage rainfall that would adversely affect the salt mining operations, and permanent homes were built., Much of the great wealth of Bermuda was created from the salt industry of the Turks Islands. The salt was sold through Bermudian merchant houses on the American seaboard, including Newfoundland, where it was used for preserving cod. , Salting continued from the 18th and 19th Centuries to its heyday in the early 20th century when the Turks Islands produced an average of 67,000 tons of salt annually. , An interesting part of the United States history is that salt from the Turks Islands was used to feed George Washington's army during the Revolutionary War. Salt from the "salt islands" had been the traditional supply for the thirteen colonies before the War of Independence, but of course, the trade was outlawed by England during the war., The situation was so dire that one of Washington's commanders wrote to him: We have not an ounce of salt provisions of any kind here, and it is impossible to preserve the fresh meat, especially as we have no salt, by any other means that barbequing in the Indian fashion, in doing which it loses nearly a half, so that ta party who receives ten days provision will be obliged to live on better than five day s allowance of meat kind. , Despite the trade barrier, privateers illegally continued to supply to the American revolutionaries.