The Salt Springs

A salt spring about a mile west was a primary attraction for immigrants to the Western Reserve territory in the mid-1700s. Before European-American settlement, Indians used the springs, boiling the water to extract salt and using it to preserve meat and for other purposes. In 1755, surveyor Lewis Evans emphasized the springs' importance by marking them on his “General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America,” which helped draw immigrants from western Pennsylvania to the region. The abundance of wildlife near the spring also provided good hunting. In February 1788, Connecticut, which claimed ownership of the Western Reserve from the colonial period until 1795, deeded the Salt Spring tract to Samuel Holden Parsons, a pioneer of the Northwest Territory and former Continental army officer. In 1796, Reuben Harmon, an early settler in what became Weathersfield Township, purchased the springs. Although settlers first viewed them as an asset, the water's salinity was too low to make salt production profitable. In 1903, railroad tracks covered the once-famous springs. “Mahoning” is said to come from the Lenape word mahonink, meaning “at the [salt] lick.”

Ohio · United States