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August 31, 2023

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T H E

Paper YOUR WEEKLY

NEWS MAGAZINE

August 31, 2023

Volume 53 - No. 35

By Cecil Scaglione Had you been living around South San Diego Bay some time ago, you could have been wealthy beyond your dreams. It would have to have been the period in time when salt was used as currency because the bay’s salt pans nestled against Chula Vista and Imperial Beach would have been an unlimited source of income. As early as the 6th century, Moorish

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Escondido San Marcos Vista Carlsbad Oceanside Valley Center

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SERVING

merchants in sub-Saharan Africa routinely traded salt and gold at the same value per ounce. As it is, the South Bay Salt Works is still a money-maker that produces the white stuff commercially for jet fuel, water softeners and feeding livestock. It does it all by solar energy. The sun evaporates the water leaving eye-dazzling white ponds of the mineral to be scraped up into mini mountains to be loaded onto carriers for transportation around

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the country, a process that hasn’t changed much since the late 1800s. The operation is the second longestrunning business in the county. The San Diego Union-Tribune is the oldest. I became familiar with the salt works a few decades ago while I covered people and politics in South San Diego County as well as elsewhere for the newspaper. Besides being the source of tons of salt, the land has become a wildlife

refuge for endangered species under the protection of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A bike path provides the curious get a close-up view of its goings on. The historical use of salt from these ponds dates back to pre-European times when local Kumeyaay Indians used salt from the bottom of this naturally protected inlet to preserve their fish. Modern times resulted in the estab-

Salt

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