Salt Pickers - Philipsburg, Sint Maarten
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 18° 01.548 W 063° 02.664
20Q E 495300 N 1993040
The Salt Pickers monument is located at the roundabout on Walter Nisbeth Road (Ponfill Road) and D.A. Peterson Street-Soualiga Blvd. at the Great Salt Pond.
Waymark Code: WME0PK
Location: Sint Maarten
Date Posted: 03/18/2012
Views: 21
The history of the island of Saint Martin is centered on the salt industry. The first inhabitants called it Soualiga - the "Land of Salt". The Dutch settled the southern half of the island in order to exploit the salt deposits found in three large salt pans that provided as much as 400 boat loads of salt per year.
The salt industry was a very hard life for those involved. Workers included children, senior citizens, slaves, and free citizens from the Dutch and the French side of the island. Each would would work at a different special task to harvest the salt. The Dutch side stopped production of salt in 1949 and, thus, the salt industry came to an end.
In honor of their salt industry heritage, the government of Sint Maarten has erected a group of sculptures, called the Salt Pickers, showing workers engaged in the various aspects of salt harvesting. Five figures are depicted. The central figure is a man using a shovel to mine the salt. A man and a woman are transporting a large tray of salt while two women are shown gathering salt.
Sector of the workforce: Salt Pickers
Created or Donated by which group: Government of Sint Maarten
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