The Saltworks Site – History & Facts

The more than 1,400-acre Redwood City Saltworks site is located just off Highway 101 along Seaport Boulevard. The site is near the Port of Redwood City, which is home to several large office, commercial, and industrial businesses. The 107-acre Pacific Shores corporate office complex is immediately to the north.

Site History

The property has been used for salt production since 1901. Initially owned by the Redwood City Saltworks, it was sold to the Stauffer Chemical Company of San Francisco in 1905 and later to the Leslie Salt Company in 1941. Cargill purchased the Leslie Salt Company, including its Redwood City plant site, in 1978. At its peak, the Redwood City plant site produced and shipped 350,000 tons of salt annually.

The Redwood City Saltworks site is the industrial portion of Cargill Salt's West Bay operations. From here, the salt is harvested, then transported by truck to the company's refinery in Newark. The site includes:

Pickle ponds (which contain fully saturated brines that feed the crystallizer beds)
Crystallizer beds (where the salt is harvested)
Desalting ponds (which re-dissolve salts)
Bittern ponds (which produce salt and magnesium chloride products for road de-icing and dust control)
A wash house, maintenance shop, and office