Grand Saline Once Moved Brine Through Hollow Logs

Before Grand Saline had a railroad name, people were making salt at Jordan's Saline. Native people evaporated water from the marshy surface above a broad salt dome. A saltworks followed, and the community briefly served as the Van Zandt County seat from 1848 to 1850.

The operation became especially important during the Civil War. Owner Samuel Richardson left for military service, and his wife ran the works until the Confederate government took control. Mule-powered pumps pulled brine from wells. Hollow gum logs, pinned together as a pipeline, carried it to large iron kettles. The works made more than 10,000 pounds of salt a day for civilians and troops west of the Mississippi River.

The Texas and Pacific Railway arrived in the early 1870s. Its depot north of Jordan's Saline took the name Grand Saline, and Samuel Q. Richardson donated 50 acres for the new townsite. Salt production followed the tracks into deeper wells, steam power, and mining.

Two original brine kettles were later placed at the east and west entrances on U.S. Highway 80. They make a fitting pair of town markers: heavy iron reminders that Grand Saline began with valuable ground, pumped water, and a mineral people could carry away by the sack.