In 1824, the United States Congress gave the State of Ohio approximately four thousand acres of Congress Lands in Delaware County, Ohio and an entire township in Jackson County, Ohio. This grant became known as the Salt Sections.
During the late eighteenth century, the Confederation Congress had prohibited the sale of this land due to the abundance of salt deposits on it. At this time, salt was very important for the preservation and the seasoning of food, and the federal government wanted to maintain control over these deposits. In 1824, the federal government decided that it no longer needed to retain the land and gave it to the State of Ohio.