The salt kettle at right was once one of hundreds used by Confederates to extract salt from the waters of St. Andrew Bay in Northwest Florida. It now rests in a beautiful park setting along Beach Drive in the old St. Andrew area of Panama City.
From 1861-1865, as many as 2,500 men worked at the saltworks around the bay and its tributaries. The facilities were repeatedly raided by the Union navy. During one raid, sailors from the U.S.S. Roebuck believed they had destroyed property worth more than $3,000,000.
Despite such raids, which sometimes resulted in the destruction of salt boilers using artillery fire, the Confederates continued to rebuilt and the saltworks remained in use throughout the war.
Salt was vital to the Southern war effort. It was used to preserve meat used to feed the armies.
Similar saltworks could be found all along the Florida coast.
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