# Survival > Foraging & Wild Edibles >  salt in the wild

## smokelessfire

ok i was reading the posts on bannock making and it made me think about salt in the wild. where would you get salt in a survival situation, or a likely salt substitute. i'm told hickory bark powderized makes a good one, any others?

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## Rick

Salt is one of the more prevalent naturally occurring elements. Pretty common really. Stream banks and where soil erosion has occurred. If salt is there, animals will find it. There are a couple of other posts on this same question. Here is a link to the major salt deposits in the US: 

http://web.ead.anl.gov/saltcaverns/usdeposit/index.htm

Remember that a great portion of the US was, at one time, a shallow sea.

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## Ole WV Coot

I never really thought that much about salt, maybe because I never add extra to any food. It's necessary for sure but I can't think of or have found any in Southern WV or Eastern KY. That's a great question and one I will have to dig into. Thanks !

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## Gray Wolf

Or pick up a bottle of salt tablets...

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## Rick

Here's one of the other threads: 

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...sissippi+River

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## Ole WV Coot

OK, this one has got me stumped. I think I would have to hit the flatland in KY to find a salt lick. Can't count on all the deer around her, every farmer has a salt block or two around for them. I am kinda curious now.

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## TrappinGal

coltsfoot can be used as a substitution for salt in te wild too. you dry the leaves, then burn them and the ash that is a result is salty and can be used to season food in the wild.

it is plentiful in my part of wv.

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## flandersander

What about southern saskatchewan?

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## Rick

Coot - I doubt you'll find much salt in WV. It has been high and dry since the days of Pangea. Here's a link on what the oceans looked like through the ages. You've had ocean front property and didn't even know it!! 

http://www.bbm.me.uk/portsdown/PH_065_Palaeo.htm

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## snakeman

You can boil hickory roots until all the water is evaporated and black salt crystals will be left. Evapaorate sea water and salt crystals will be left. Worst case scenario you can get salt from animal blood.

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## smokelessfire

cool, thanks snakeman. i also just remembered something from long ago, being by the ocean and getting salt from the leaves of pampas grass by taking thumb and forefinger, pinching the leaf lightly, and "Stripping" out to the tip, and have quite a bit of salt.

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## trax

> What about southern saskatchewan?


Now there's a question that gets asked across Canada daily, "what about southern Saskatchewan?" The politicos and think tank consultants just shrug and try to change the subject.

Naw, I'm just foolin' with ya flanders, I think there' a plenty of salt licks in the Cypress Hills area, or so I've been told (could have been lied to, it's happened before and I fell for it)

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## Cleankill47

Trappingal, 

Coltsfoot isn't actually salty, it's just the flavor.

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