Elton

Lake Elton lies in a shallow basin east of the Volga, surrounded by the dry Caspian steppe. Its highly saline water spreads over a broad area but is very shallow, shrinking in dry seasons and leaving salt on the lake bed. The lake was a valuable source of salt long before a village grew beside it.

Russian authorities alternately permitted and prohibited extraction in the early eighteenth century. In 1747 the treasury took charge of the works, and Elton became a major source of salt for the empire. Carters carried the mineral across the steppe to the Volga River, where boats could take it farther upstream. The trade tied this isolated salt basin to settlements and markets along the great river.