La Saline is an
abandoned village
An abandoned village is a village that has, for some reason, been deserted. In many countries, and throughout history, thousands of villages have been deserted for a variety of causes. Abandonment of villages is often related to epidemic, f ...
located in
Beauvais Township in
Sainte Genevieve County,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, United States. La Saline is located approximately six miles south of
Sainte Genevieve.
Etymology
La Saline is
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and refers to the two natural salt springs found in the area, which also gave name to the nearby creek and its tributaries called ''Saline Creek'' or ''Saline River''. The French colonials knew
Saline Creek as ''La Rivière de la Saline'' or ''La Petite Rivière de la Saline''. The
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
referred to the creek and its tributaries as ''Las Salinas''. There were two settlements, La Grande Saline and La Petite Saline, with the former being the larger of the two. La Grande Saline was usually simply referred to as ''La Saline'', and sometimes as ''Old Saline''.
History
In 1541, Spanish explorer
De Soto De Soto commonly refers to
* Hernando de Soto (c. 1495 – 1542), Spanish explorer
* DeSoto (automobile), an American automobile brand from 1928 to 1961
De Soto, DeSoto, Desoto, or de Soto may also refer to:
Places in the United States of Ameri ...
had sent Hernando de Silvera and Pedro Moreno from Capaha, with Indian guides, to obtain a supply of salt from a saline stream to the north, presumably the Saline Creek in Ste. Genevieve County.
Later, during the
French colonial period, both French and
Illinois Indians
The Illinois Confederation, also referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, were made up of 12 to 13 tribes who lived in the Mississippi River Valley. Eventually member tribes occupied an area reaching from Lake Michicigao (Michigan) to Iowa, Illi ...
came to the site of La Saline to get their salt.
The settlement of the Saline River began in the early 1700s. In 1715, a small party of French were reported to be making salt at La Saline. The early encampment at La Saline was temporary, but over time became permanent. Two settlements grew up along the Saline: the Grande Saline, located near the mouth of the creek, and the Petite Saline, located at the upper end of the creek, along a tributary. The purpose of the settlement was the manufacturing of salt which was used for meat preservation, skin tanning, and fur processing. Water from the salt springs was boiled in ovens the French built; when the water boiled away, the salt remained.
Spanish Colonial authorities also set up a post at La Saline in 1788. By 1800, French and Americans (Kentuckians) extracting salt from the Saline had set up four or five furnaces used for boiling off the salt for extraction, earning La Saline the name 'La Saline Ensanglantèe' (The Bloody Saline). These men were sending approximately thirty-five hundred barrels of salt to New Orleans each year.
As well as producing salt, La Saline’s location along the Mississippi River meant that it served as a lead-shipping point. Lead from Mine la Motte, opened in the 1720s, came by animal or cart over ridge roads and then down the Saline River Valley to its mouth at La Saline to be loaded on Mississippi River boats.
In the early 19th century salt was being produced in southern Illinois along the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
, making salt production in La Saline decline. In 1822, some seventeen workers were still using 100-150 kettles to extract salt, but by 1825, all production had ceased. As a village without any economic base and with efforts to make it a district post having failed, La Saline depopulated.
Population
The earliest inhabitants of La Saline were
French colonialists who worked to produce salt. Eventually, Americans poured in to produce salt as well. In the 1797 census, Americans dominated with twenty-eight households. Five other nationalities were represented: French, French Canadian, Creole, Irish and Scottish. Four different religions were identified: Anglican (twenty-three households), Catholic (eleven households), Presbyterian (five households), and Anabaptist (two households). In 1804 La Saline was reported to have had 59 inhabitants. The population was always small, with a temporary and diverse population comprising more single men than families.
Layout
La Saline was an unplanned French village, which simply grew up amorphously without any spatial coordination. Typical of such villages were a small number of cabins scattered along a creek and road with corn plots surrounding gardens. There were no surveyed boundaries to separate tracts of land. As the main economic activity was salt-extraction and not agriculture, large tracts of farmland was not usual.
Geography
La Saline was located on the Mississippi River at the mouth of Saline Creek, opposite of Kaskaskia Island, roughly six miles south of Sainte Genevieve.
[Dr. Elizabeth M. Scott, Excavations and Research at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri http://lilt.ilstu.edu/emscot2/history.html ]
References
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Unincorporated communities in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri
Abandoned villages in Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri
French-American culture in Missouri
French-Canadian culture in Missouri
French colonial settlements of Upper Louisiana
Unincorporated communities in Missouri