Salt for the early settlements of northern Arizona very generally was
secured from the salt lake of the Zuni, just east of the New Mexican
line, roughly 33 miles from St. Johns. As early as 1865, Sol Barth
brought salt on pack mules from this lake to points as far westward as
Prescott. In the records of a number of the Little Colorado settlements
are found references to where the brethren visited a salt lake and came
back with as much as two tons at a load. This lake is of sacred character
to the Zuni, which, at certain times of the year send parties of priests
and warriors to the lake, 45 miles south of the tribal village. There is
elaborate ceremonial before salt is collected. Undoubtedly the lake was
known to prehistoric peoples, for salt, probably obtained at this point,
has been found in cliff ruins in southern Colorado, 200 miles from the
source of supply. The Zuni even had a special goddess, Mawe, genius of
the sacred salt lake, or "Salt Mother," to whom offerings were made at
the lake. Warren K. Follett, in 1878, told that the lake lies 300 feet
lower than the general surface of the country. The salt forms within the
water, in layers of from three to four inches thick, and is of remarkable
purity.
The Hopi secured salt from a ledge in the Grand Canyon, below the mouth
of the Little Colorado, about eighty miles northwest of their villages.
At the point of mining, sacrifices were made before shrines of a goddess
of salt and a god of war. The place has had description by Dr. Geo.
Wharton James, whose knowledge of the gorge is most comprehensive.
On the upper Verde and in Tonto Creek Valley are salt deposits, though
very impure. Upper Salt River has a small deposit of very good sodium
chloride, which was mined mainly for the mills of Globe, in the
seventies. The Verde deposit now is being mined for shipment to paper
mills of its sodium sulphate. Reference elsewhere is made to the
salt mines of the Virgin River Valley.
[Illustration: GRAND FALLS ON THE LITTLE COLORADO RIVER]
[Illustration: ORIGINAL FORT MORONI WITH ITS STOCKADE]
[Illustration: FORT MORONI IN LATER YEARS]