INTRODUCTION
No place in North America in such a small space heralds such a
panoply of dramatic history as does Saltville, Virginia.
Beginning with the creation of the
earth itself, and continuing through the settlement of North
America by Paleolithic people, prehistoric fauna, Old World
exploration and settlement, the evolution of American land title
law, preindustrial era industry, Civil War, premodern chemical
industry, modern chemical industry, and environmental law
Saltville brandishes it all.
Each “has its hour upon the stage”.
The breathless procession of human
characters who performed on that stage makes fiction seem tame
by comparison.
SALTVILLE GEOLOGY
The Saltville basin is a geologic
story demonstrating in a unique self contained micro universe
what was happening over the entire world, and especially in
eastern North America about 350 million years ago.
The earth is like a molten ball of solder with scum floating on
the surface.
The scum is the continents, which
float on the molten core of solder.
The continents float apart and come
together again in ever changing patterns.
It is, of course, a very slow
process.
 North America and
South America were still joined at the Isthmus of Panama 350
million years ago, like they are today, except that Panama was
like a closed hinge, and the two Americas were touching each
other.
North America east of the
Mississippi was not solid land, but a collection of islands
surrounded by inland seas.
Continue page 2
Pangea
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