These ponds often have some connection to the ocean. In some cases this is by natural inlets or channels, others are replenished by abnormally high tides or subterranean cave systems. As the trapped ocean water in these ponds evaporate in the typically hot Turks and Caicos climate, salt crystals naturally collect in places.
Salt exports from the Turks and Caicos began before recorded history. It’s known that the indigenous Taino pre-Columbian inhabitants would gather some of this naturally occurring salt and trade it with the inhabitants of Hispaniola for honey and fruit, and evidence also suggests that they may have also exported salted bonefish! Later on, early European explorers would also stop by to collect salt.
The Turks and Caicos has many high salinity ponds, which can be found on nearly every major island in the archipelago. However, not many of the ponds naturally produce large amounts of salt, as water inflow must be in balance with evaporation rates. A notable productive natural salt pond is the Proggin Bay flat, which is in the Frenchman's Creek and Pigeon Pond Nature Reserve on Providenciales.
Evidence suggests that the natural salt ponds were quite valuable to the pre-Columbian Lucayan peoples that previously inhabited the Turks and Caicos, as major settlement sites have been located near such sites.
In previous centuries, salt was a very valuable commodity necessary for food preservation. In the late 1600s, British colonists in Bermuda recognized the potential of the Turks and Caicos marine ponds for salt raking, and by the end of the century they had begun to develop the natural ponds into salinas to increase output.
