Part of the California Counties Photography Collection, this selection of photographs of several salt works in Alameda County includes images photographed and/or compiled by Charles A. Plummer, who along with his father John and brother John Jr., became a leading salt manufacturer in Alameda County in the latter part of the 19th century. In 1868, near Alvarado at the mouth of Alameda Creek, the Plummers established the Turk Island Salt Works, which by 1878 was the second largest salt operation in Washington Township, one of the county’s six principalities. Also depicted are the Union Pacific Salt Works in Alvarado and the Crystal Salt Works in Newark.
