On Thursday, May 14, 2015, Carter and Nancy Bruns will discuss “The J. Q. Dickinson Saltworks” in the Archives and History Library of the Culture Center in Charleston. The program will begin at 6:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
The Dickinsons were early saltmakers in the Kanawha Valley, and in 1832 the John Q. Dickinson salt furnace was established at Malden. Repaired after the Civil War, the facility remained in operation well into the twentieth century, for many years as the last salt operation in the area. Carter Bruns will speak about the industrialization of the Kanawha Valley by the salt industry. He also will touch on the industry in the country during this time. Nancy Bruns, a descendant of the Dickinsons, will talk about the family history from the Civil War to the present and why she and her brother revived the salt business.
Carter Bruns grew up in Colorado and received a B.A. in economics from The Colorado College, then attended the New England Culinary Institute, where he met his wife Nancy, a native of Charleston and a graduate of Bucknell University. The couple owned and operated a small restaurant in the mountains of North Carolina for years, allowing her to discover the importance of food sourcing and the connection of family farming to a healthy food system.
The Bruns sold the restaurant in 2008, and Carter decided to pursue a second passion, the study of early American history. While earning his master’s degree, he became intrigued by the frequency of colonists’ complaints surrounding a lack of abundant salt and the lackluster efforts to produce the essential mineral in the America’s English colonies. His master’s thesis, “The Whole River is Abustle,” examines the antebellum Kanawha Valley salt industry as an example of American frontier industrialization and resultant environmental degradation predating the more commonly known early industrial centers of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Carter is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at University of South Carolina, where he is working on an analysis of the reactions of Missouri farmers to the Kanawha salt combinations in the 1830s.
Seeking to marry her love of food and deep family heritage with a meaningful business, Nancy Bruns revived her family’s salt enterprise in Malden with her brother Lewis Payne two years ago. The J. Q. Dickinson Salt-Works harvests an all-natural gourmet salt by hand.
For additional information, contact the Archives and History Library at (304) 558-0230.
