ORIGIN OF THE NAME
"SALT RIVER TIGER"

This article came from the December 16, 1896 issue of the Salt River Tiger, a short lived newspaper of the 1890's.
In 1818 David Spencer , a flat boat man, was taking a load of goods from the Salt River area to New Orleans. He passed a steamer that was also on the way to New Orleans. The Captain called out and asked who Spencer was. There was a bevy of young girls on the deck of the steamer who were watching the scene. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Spencer called out "we're Salt River Tigers". The captain was so delighted with the phrase and episode that when he arrived in New Orleans he passed the story around until it culminated in publication of a New Orleans newspaper. Men who fought in the Mexican and Spanish American wars also called themselves Salt River Tigers and Col. Philip Lee's confederate company called themselves by the same name.

FROM THE PROSE PEN OF THE HON. J. W. CROAN, 1897

Probably the most picturesque spot in the county, Bullitt's Lick proper, the site of the famous salt works. is a basin-like amphitheater a mile in length. and less than a half mile in width, and is traversed of uneven, picturesque ridges, flanked by moIE--hill peaks, barren of vegetation. made so by the action of the salt, which are ten or fifteen feet high.

In the period prior to 1780, the dawning of agriculture in this section, the fertile land skirting the banks and low bottoms of Salt River were covered with a luxuriant growth of cane and wild grasses, and were the abodes of immense herds of buffalo, elk, antelope and deer whose well-rounded saddles shook on their sides as they roamed the wild fields and tickled the turf with their ivory-shod toes. It was on the salt-sown amphitheater of Bullitt's Lick these sleek denizens would come out at night from the cane thickets. and eat the dirt and enrich their iuicy steaks on the glistening salt flakes. This was their sporting rink.

Perhaps for centuries before the white man set foot on this part of Kentucky, only the star-studded heavens had been the silent spectator of their wild sports and rival feats, as they plunged their hardened heads together like steam-propelled battering rams, and plowed and tore the earth with tinseled hoof and horn, tickling each other's ribs with velvet spike. and filling the air with bellowing sounds and tribal music more thrilling than the minstrelsy of the ancient Bulls of Bashau.

Time rolled on, and the Shawhanee, Chickasaw and Sioux tribes came riding on its billows, with flint-faced arrows, scalping-knife and frying pan, carrying with them the appetite of princes. Their keen instincts and practiced eyes soon convinced them that they had struck the Mecca of the great hunting ground. These became co-tenants of the forest, and delighted spectators of the theatrical performances of their velvet-robed neighbors, and not a few were the juicy steaks served in a la mode savage style about their wigwams.

It was not until the year 1775 Thomas HOGAN. an Englishman. father of Lewis HOGAN, who was a celebrated stonemason in the Knobs in the 1840s; Evan MOORE's father, Robert CROAN, both Irishmen; Isaac SKINNER. John DUNN, Amos HOGLAN's father, Adam CAHILL, and a few others were attracted here by the wild reports of the famous salt deposits and the rich game fields and nut- laden forests.

These dauntless pioneers resolutely set to work building pole cabins and establishing a permanent settlement preparatory to opening up the afterwards renowned salt works. Connected with this enterprise were Henry CRIST. Nathaniel CRIPPS and perhaps others. New recruits were added to the settlement forom time to time. A great many rude cabins were spee dily built. and in a short time a thriving and enterprising town had sprung up like magic. Settlements had been made around Beargrass at Louisville, Harrodsburg, and shortly after at Elizabethtown. Some fifty wells were sunk., said to have been from 60 to 300 feet in depth, a number of which, and the charcoal beds where the furnaces were located, are still plainly visible. The large iron kettles in which the salt water was boiled, were procured from Pittsburg; boated down the Ohio in flatboats to the mouth of Salt river and up Salt river to the landing about two miles from the sal-t works. Hundreds of hands were soon engaged in cutting and hauling the wood to fire the furnaces and draw the salt water from the wells and manufacture the salt.

Corn was grown on a small scale for bread, and the meat was obtained from the wild hog supply, buffalo, elk, turkey and deer. then abounding in the near hills, and richly nut-laden flats. The antelope, deer and elk would come out of the cane at night to lick the salt a safe distance from the works; these came in droves, and after scenting and reconnoitering the field, sometimes for hours. would walk into the trap salted for them when a volley was poured into them from the deadly rifles that had been secured in rests. cocked and sighted before night, the
triggers being pulled by lines from ambuscades more than a hundred yards away.

Bullitt's Lick that day was the El Dorado of the Kentucky district. Salt was supplied to settlers and traders all over the surrounding country. from west of the Allegheny mountains to New Orleans and Indiana, there then being no other salt works west of the Allegheny range. After the country was opened up and wagon roads were built, the former mode of carrying the saline product on pack mules was abandoned, and large quantities of whiskey, flour, etc., was hauled by axle from Nelson, Washington and Shelby. and traded for the product of these salt works. Then there was very little money. Continental paper was the principal currency. and it took one thousand dollars of this paper to equal one of silver of gold.

In 1790 the elder James CROAN was born at the Salt works, and a few years later Robt. CROAN, one of the first pioneers, met a horrible fate by being scalded to death in one of the large kettles of salt water. into which he had fallen while working around them. About this time, Isaac SKINNER, having purchased four hundred acres of land in the Knobs, near Cupio now. and John DUNN. then partners in salt making. dug the original Bullitt's Lick hill to get to his land.

Shortly prior to this Adam CAHILL, while hauling wood from the chopping, was captured by a predatory band of Indians and taken on top of one of the tallest peaks close to the foot of Bullitt's Lick. over one thousand feet high, at-id lashed to cii-ic- of the tall pines with withes, and whipped nearly to death. CAHILL was so ugly the Indians would not take his scalp, and they left him tied to perish at leisure. He was that evening released by a scout of friends from the salt works. From this circumstance this tall peak went down in history as Cahill's Knob.

In 1783, Moses HOGLAN's father, from the salt works, and Moses., then a lad twelve years old. were murderously assaulted by Indians while fishing in Beech Fork, a few miles above Pitts Point. The father was killed and Moses taken prisoner. The savages carried young HOGLAN to the northwest and held him for twelve years. He held the Indian ponies at the battle of Bloody Ridge, and underwent an experience of peril and hardship. He regained his liberty after the treaty of 179S. He afterward soldiered under Gen. HARRISON, and was at the battle of Tippecanoe. Moses HOGLAN was the father of Judge Lorenza HOGLAN, of Shepherdsville, and Arterberry HOGLAN, of the Knobs, and other children deceased.

..May, 1788, the desperate battle with the Indians was fought from a flat boat in Salt river not very far below Pitts Point. The boat and crew, consisting of twelve men and one woman, enroute from Louisville to the landing on Salt river not very far below Pitts Point. laden with kettles for the salt works, was under the lead of Henry CRIST and Nathaniel CRIPPS.

They were attracted by the strategy of the Indians by a sound like the gobbling of turkeys; thus lured, went ashore with rifle in hand to kill them. They had not gone far when the Indians attacked them and drove them aboard the boat which was fastened to the roots of a tree by a log chain cable, and took shelter behind the kettles that were arranged in rows on the sides of the boat. The Indians. about 100 strong, rushed upon the deadly rifles, and many fell before their fire. The boat had pulled out the length of the chain from the bank and they fought nearly an hour before the chain could be loosened from its fastening. Finally CRIST took a long pole on the boat and jobbed it against the hook and it fell out of the link and the craft floated out into the river and was shoved over to the Hardin side furthest from the enemy. Seeing the savages swimming across below the boat and most of the crew being killed, CRIST, badly shot in theheel, Evan MOORE and HOGAN, unhurt, crawled off the boat and upthe bank into the thick bushes and concealed themselves.The woman was taken prisoner and Nathaniel CRIPPS and all therest of the crew were killed.

CRIST,in great agony, after night fall, crawled to the river bank,and finding a log on the bank, rolled it into the water and floated over to the Bullitt side, and on his hands and knees crawled through the cane and thick brushes up Salt river. Traveling at night and laying still in day time to prevent detection. On the fourth day, worn out and exhausted from loss of blood and starvation, he came near the salt works in a deep ravine. iust before night. Seeing some passers in the wood- hopping he hailed them by making a loud noise; they were afraid to venture toward him, and went to the works and gave the alarm. The settlers at the salt works went in search and found CRIST in the ravine concealed in a thicket of bushes, and carried him to the works almost lifeless. The skin and flesh was worn off his hands and knees from crawling on them a distance of about eight miles. Gen. Henry CRIST was permitted to survive this trying ordeal and became afterwards the first and only representative every sent to Congress from Bullitt County, I think in the year 1804.

Large quantities of wood was consumed in the manufacture of salt, and before 1800 all the wood that was convenient had been cut off the flats and hill sides. Newcomers embarked in the enterprise as others dropped out. Last engaged in the business here were Thomas JOYCE. of Shepherdsville. and William MOORE. of Bullitt's Lick, their business bein conducted closer to the footof Bullitt's Lick hill. Wood here being exhausted. They elevated the water and ran it through bored pine logs under ground down the valley as far as KINNESON's farm, now TROUTWINE'S, where they manufactured the salt. It was cheaper to run the water to the wood than haul the wood.

About 1810-20 salt was also made near Old Deposit, now South Park, on the L. & N. R. R., by Joe BROOKS, a wealthy farmer residing near Brooks Station. He sunk a large and very deep well and walled it up with pine log cribbing, and for a number of years did a large business. Large quantities of the product was stored at Old Deposit, whence the name. Much of this salt was hauled to the Ohio river and carried over FARNSLEY's Ferry, near Greenwood now, and supplied to the trade in Indiana. The wood supply being exhausted here BROOKS built a high crib of pine logs twenty or thirty feet high, and the salt water was elevated to a large tank on top and conveyed in bored pine logs to his place, to a point just north of Brooks Station. where the salt was made. The old crib. partially standing, and the pine logs along the route in places are still in existence. Also the pine logs below Bullitt's Lick. on the Isaac FROMAN farm are still visible.

After the opening of the Kanawha salt works the business proved unprofitable.

Numbers of the large iron kettles used here are still in possession of the older citizens, and are carefully preserved and prized as relics of the Eighteenth century. Many of the older citizens whose ancestors participated in the stirring scenes enacted around Builitt Lick over a century ago, delight to talk over them, and perpetuate them in the book of memory.

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