Morton Salt

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Morton Salt Girl

Morton Salt is a United States company producing salt for food, water conditioning, industrial, agricultural, and road/highway use.

The company began in Chicago, Illinois in 1848 as a small sales agency. In 1910, the business, which had by this time become both a manufacturer and a merchant of salt, was incorporated as the Morton Salt Company.

The business, still based in Chicago, is North America's leading producer and marketer of salt. Its main facility, the second-largest solar saline operation in North America, is in Matthew Town, Inagua, The Bahamas.

In 1999 Morton Salt was acquired by the Philadelphia-based Rohm and Haas Company, Inc. and operates as a division of that company.

The company's headquarters is 123 North Wacker Drive. Prior to their acquisition in 1999, their corporate headquarters was 100 N Riverside Plaza (the headquarters of Boeing).

Morton Salt's hand-drawn logo features the "Morton Salt Girl," a young girl walking in the rain with an opened umbrella, and scattering salt behind her from a cylindrical container of table salt. The company's logo, developed in 1914, and its motto, "When it rains, it pours" (developed in 1911), were developed to illustrate the point that Morton Salt was free flowing, even in rainy weather. Originally, the company had added magnesium carbonate as an absorbing agent to ensure that its table salt was free flowing; calcium silicate is now used instead for the same purpose.

Morton's sister company in Canada is Windsor Salt, and both companies are owned by Rohm and Haas.

The founder of the Morton Salt company, Joy Morton, was the son of J. Sterling Morton, who was the founder of Arbor Day.

Morton Salt is the sponsor of the Morton Arboretum, a 1,700-acre botanical garden in Lisle, Illinois. It was established by Joy Morton, the company's founder, in 1922 to encourage the display and study of shrubs, trees, and vines. Over 300,000 visitors a year hike on miles of trails and over 3,600 kinds of plants are displayed.^[1]