Thursday, April 16, from 10:30 am - 12:00 pm, Museum admission included. Historian Bob Kelley uncovers the origins and legacy of Cape Cod’s saltworks, revealing how early innovation and Revolutionary-era need shaped this vital local industry.

Join historian Bob Kelley of the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth for a fascinating talk on the saltworks developed on the uplands at Sesuit Creek in the East Precinct of Yarmouth. He will discuss why the Atlantic coast was unable to produce salt as efficiently as European countries, how the 1775 Prohibitory Act of Parliament inspired Capt. John Sears to experiment with solar salt production on the eve of the Revolution, and how, in 1785, the hand pump from the wreck of the Somerset became part of that development.

Bob will explain how salt production shaped the region’s economy for more than 80 years—with help from tariffs enacted by Congress beginning in 1789—and identify the first saltmakers whose innovations fueled this vital industry. He will also explore how solar salt production enabled the rapid spread of the Sears and Hattil Killey patents throughout the Cape after 1799, and why the industry began to decline in the mid-1800s.