Salt production has long been Inaguas main industry, and the island is perfect for it because the climate is mostly dry. It began in the late 1930s, when three American brothers, the Ericksons, came to the island and built a mechanized salt operation. Known for seawater salt recovery, the Morton Salt Company bought the facility from the Erickson brothers in 1954. This site, comprising 300,000 acres on Great Inagua, produces about a million pounds of salt per year‚ the second largest saline operation in North America.