Saltpeter, also known as Quick Salt is a white, translucent and lustrous mineral composed of potassium nitrate. It is found in surface soils in Spain, Egypt and Iran and in the loose soil of limestone caves in Kentucky, Tennessee and the Mississippi Valley among other places. Today it is used as a fertilizer, in the production of glass, preserves foods and in some medicines. But during the early days of Kentucky and elsewhere, it was used as gunpowder. In early Kentucky days, people knew of quick salt as much as regular "table" salt. Kentucky has many dry caves, necessary for saltpeter and a major industry was begun when the War of 1812 and even the Civil War threatened. Monk Estill was a slave and made a name for himself in the annals of Kentucky history. It was he who provided Fort Boonesborough and the Estill Station with saltpeter to make gunpowder as early as 1780. Only 25 years later there were twenty-eight saltpeter caves and rock shelters being mined in the state. During the War of 1812, the demand for saltpeter was intensified because a blockade of U S Ports by the British embargo of 1807 cut off American supplies from India. The prices shot up, the demand was up and the need was met by massive exploration in some of the dry caves, including Mammoth Cave in Edmonson County and a producing cave called The Great Saltpeter Cave" in Rockcastle County, KY. Dixon Cave, which is near Mammoth was also used. There was a large powder mill on Boozy Creek, and it was operated back in the early 1800s and possibly before by the Hughes family. In Mammoth Cave, wooden vats were built inside the entrance and at Booth's Amphitheater and the Rotunda in the cave. Log pipes carried water into the cave for the leaching of the calcium nitrate from the soil and was pumped to the surface. There it was treated with wood ashes and boiled in large kettles to crystalize. According to Foxfire (see below): "The next step was to combine the mother liquor rich in calcium nitrate with wood ashes that contain high amounts of potassium hydroxide. The best wood ashes for this purpose were made by burning hardwoods such as oak and hickory. The mother liquor was either poured directly over the woodashes or the woodashes were leached in barrels and the leachate directly combined with the mother liquor. Upon combination, a white haze could be seen , and this white precipitate (calcium hydroxide or 'curds' as it was called) would slowly sink to the bottom of the barrel. If the solution contained an excess of calcium nitrate, the product was termed 'in the grease.' An excess of wood ashes produced a condition called 'in the ley.' "The wood ash leachate was poured into the mother liquor until the white curds could no longer be seen precipitating out of solution. The remaining solution thus contained the still soluble potassium nitrate. This solution was dipped out into an apple-butter kettle (or "evaporator"), and a fire started under the kettle. Turnip halves were then thrown into the boiling solution to help keep it from foaming and to take up the dirty brown color. Oxblood (or alum) was also added to the boiling liquid and caused the organic matter to rise to the top of the liquid and form a scum which, with continued boiling, was constantly ladled off. After a few hours of boiling, the hot liquor was poured through cheesecloth in order to filter out the remaining scum and organic material. Upon cooling, fine, bitter, needle-shaped crystals of niter (potassium nitrate) formed in the liquor. These crystals were then collected and dried. Potassium nitrate crystals were far superior to calcium or sodium-nitrate crystals because they are non-deliquescent (do not take up moisture from the air) and, hence, would not make the gunpowder wet and unusable. The nitrate crystals thus obtained had to be further refined and purified. This purification procedure was done either by the individual and homemade into gunpowder, or it was done after the saltpeter crystals were sent to a refinery where the final gunpowder was made." After 1811, production demands dropped at Mammoth Cave because the soil containing the nitrate was totally depleted. Then when the New Madrid Earthquake hit, the operation was damaged. After the war foreign imports increased and the prices dropped causing the abandonment of the saltpeter mining operation. The following will give the reader a small look into the production of salt peter. Many slaves worked the saltpeter caves, but is not meant to be comprehensive. Information gained primarily from The Foxfire Book, Volume 5, (c) 1979, Doubleday books. I recommend the Foxfire Books for a good insight into many factors of old-time living. According to Foxfire, black powder was made of saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur, each needing to be ground separately (measurements given but not included). This was done by the individual making his own gunpowder by using a mortal and pestle, or even a flour mill. This powder is mixed with a small amount of water to make it like a biscuit dough. Some people mixed with urine which gave the gun powder more oxygen and performed better! An alternate way of making saltpeter would be mixing urine and manure in a big tank and mixing it with water. It was left to "brew" for about ten months. The liquid was drained off through ashes into shallow wooden trays and let stand to evaporate. What is left is the potassium nitrate crystals (saltpeter). Many people who lived in cities had outhouses. There was a tray or drawer under the seats that could be pulled out. The people paid collectors who came by night about once a month and dumped the contents into a special wagon. When the wagons were full, another man bought the contents of the wagon and dumped it into concrete tanks. The liquid was run through the ashes into evaporating trays or basins to collect the saltpeter! Charcoal was needed when the gunpowder was lit. According to Foxfire, when burning the carbon assists in making potassium carbonates and carbon sulfates during the instant of a second it is burning. This is primarily released at the muzzle as smoke. The residue remains in the barrel and has to be cleaned out after every shot or every third shot. The charcoal should be made from western cedar, chinaberry, willow, cottonwood or soft pine only. (c) Copyright 27 Feb 2002, Sandra K.Gorin. All rights reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Col. Sandi Gorin, 205 Clements Ave., Glasgow, KY 42141 (270) 651-9114 Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ GORIN worldconnect website: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~sgorin SCKY resource links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html