Kansas Underground Salt Museum
Encyclopedia
The Kansas Underground Salt Museum is built within one of the world’s largest deposits of rock salt. It provides the opportunity to go 650 feet (198 meters) beneath the Earth
’s surface. It is a unique destination attraction for exploring an amazing environs carved from salt
deposits formed 275 million years ago. The museum is located in the Hutchinson Salt Company mine which began operation in 1923 as Carey Salt Company. There are just 14 other salt mines in the United States
, none of which are accessible to tourists. Two European cities – Wieliczka, Poland
and Salzburg, Austria – however, have long had salt mine attractions.
Since 1923, Hutchinson Salt Company (formerly Carey Salt) has produced rock salt by the room and pillar
mining fashion, which begins with a shaft sunk through the overlying rock to the salt deposit. The salt is removed in a checkerboard
pattern, in which large square caverns alternate with square pillars of salt that serve as support for the rock above. This pattern of mining also provides fresh, ventilated air in worker-occupied areas.
Blasting breaks the salt into manageable pieces, which are conveyed to crushers and removed
to the surface through the shaft with large buckets on the hoist. Because of the impurities (mostly shale
and anhydrite
), rock salt is used primarily as road salt. The method of producing rock salt has changed significantly over the years from men hacking
at the salt-face with pick-axes to a highly efficient, modern industry. Every step of the journey that salt makes from the mine to the finished product is modern, mechanized, and efficient.
Another form of mining, solution mining or the evaporation
process, is performed at Cargill
Salt and Morton Salt
, both located in Reno County. Water is forced down a pipe into the salt deposit where it dissolves
into brine
which is pumped to the surface and heated to the point of evaporation, leaving behind a high grade of salt. Nearly everyone uses some type of evaporated salt every day.
The mine elevator is called the “skip” in the mining industry. Fully loaded it carries four tons of salt and makes a round trip every three minutes. This loaded skip is hoisted to the top electrically by a wire rope with jute core, and is used to transport miners to and from the mine as well as bring the mined salt topside.
Museum visitors ride on electric trams driven by docents for The Dark Ride segment of the visit underground. Miners have a different form of transportation—vehicles that run on bio-diesel fuel
, or B100
, a fuel that is almost 100% cooking oil. After the rail system was discontinued, miners switched to an alternative way to get around the mine—old junk cars. Initially, these cars were modified to run on diesel, but have been updated to use bio-diesel because it doesn’t leave particles in the air. The Hutchinson Salt Company mine was the first mine in North America
to convert underground vehicles to B100 fuel.
Salt produced at the Hutchinson Salt Company is called rock salt, and about 500,000 tons is mined each year. It is principally used for industrial purposes and for de-icing highways. When finely ground, it is used for feeding livestock. It is not used for table salt or other purposes requiring a very pure type of salt.
In contrast, salt produced through the evaporation process produces common table salt, as well as salt used by pharmaceutical companies, food processors, and agricultural and chemical businesses.
All that empty space. Mines that are no longer in production can be used for a variety of purposes. Entrepreneur
s of all likes have proposed using them for everything from prisons to massive chicken coops. The Hutchinson
mine is home to Underground Vaults & Storage, a secure facility housing documents, artifacts, and other valuable material from around the world.
Although natural gas companies sometimes use salt caverns for storing reserves and a salt mine in New Mexico
even stores radioactive waste, the Hutchinson salt mine has never been used for anything other than storage of records—and now, of course, the Museum.
in 1961. The Society did not have a permanent home for a museum until 1963 when it opened in five rooms in the downstairs area of a home belonging to RCHS founder and then president, Goldie Maupin. Mrs. Maupin lived in the home originally built by one of the former mayors of Hutchinson, J.P. Harsha, for whom the large drainage canal on the outskirts of the city was named. By 1967, the society’s collections outgrew the Harsha House and the Reno County Historical Museum was moved to nearby Haven, Kansas
, a smaller community located thirteen miles (19 km) southeast of Hutchinson.
In Haven, the museum thrived for the first few years. Community leaders believed the museum would provide an anchor for downtown growth and the development of tourism in Haven. Efforts to gain a tax base for support from the Reno County mill levy for the museum were unsuccessful, however. The museum’s home in historic Township Hall also began to deteriorate during the early 1970s
. The roof began to leak and the basement periodically flooded. Collections storage areas also filled to capacity and the museum was forced to stop collecting artifacts in 1976. By that time, the collection had grown to approximately 10,000 artifacts, some of which were lost or ruined due to the terrible condition of the building and the lack of environmental control. Community support also ebbed as the condition of the museum facility grew worse. During the early 1980s the museum was only open on Sunday afternoons, and by appointment.
In 1984, the Reno County Historical Society’s Board of Directors began a campaign to bring the museum back to the more heavily populated city of Hutchinson – which is also the county seat of Reno County. The Board convened a site selection committee and began a development fund drive that ultimately led to the purchase of the Kline Insurance Building and the Rosemont Hotel. Part of the funds were used to construct a link between the adjacent buildings and to establish the Borton Memorial Garden near the entrance to the museum. The first professional Director and Curator were hired in 1985, and the museum opened its doors on December 12, 1986 at its present location. In 1989, the museum began publishing ‘’Legacy: The Journal of the Reno County Historical Society’’.
In 1996 and 1997, the museum redesigned its public space to include five exhibit galleries, two children’s interactive areas, a research room, and the Houston Whiteside
Conference Room, named for one of the society’s benefactors. In 1996, the museum developed the Celebrate History educational program for elementary school students, which annually hosts over 1200 students from the Reno County area. In 1997, the Kansas Department of Transportation
granted the museum’s request to relocate the 1876 John Siegrist claim House to museum grounds, thus saving the structure from demolition. The Claim House opened to the public in September 1998.
In 1998 and again in 2000, the RCHS received the prestigious General Operating Support grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
in Washington D.C.
In 1998 the RCHS began a long range planning process that resulted in the idea of creating a major exhibition about the salt industry in Reno County. That idea grew to become the Kansas Underground Salt Museum.
The shaft never took up a load of salt while carrying miners. In fact, when the elevator transported people, salt production below had to stop. For this reason, the visionaries of the salt museum knew a project could not get underway without construction of a new shaft. In cooperation with Underground Vaults & Storage, the storage company located in the mine, the two entities agreed to share the cost of the shaft, making the Kansas Underground Salt Museum a viable reality.
The shaft had to be drilled through one of the world’s largest aquifers. The Ogallala Aquifer
covers around 174000 square miles (450,657.9 km²) in eight states and can be as deep as 1000 feet (304.8 m). In this area, it’s known as the Equus Beds
and is about 130 feet (39.6 m) thick at the site of the museum. For efficient construction without water seepage, the aquifer was frozen. That allowed miners to dig through the aquifer and encase the shaft in concrete.
Shaft construction was handled by Thyssen Mining Company, a Canadian contractor. The project got underway March 8, 2004, and took just a day shy of one year to complete. Thyssen utilized the expertise of Moretrench American Corporation for the ground freezing. The process required the sinking of 24 separate pipes to a depth of 150 feet (45.7 m). A liquid nitrogen
and salt brine
solution pumped into the pipes brought the temperature down to freeze the aquifer.
Once the frozen condition was accomplished, excavation began using a crane and bucket
method. The mining cycle consisted of drilling in six-to eight-foot increments, loading the area with explosives, blasting, then “mucking out” (removing) the blasted material from the shaft. The miners would then advance 15 feet (4.6 m) and pour the shaft’s concrete liner. This action was performed with every 15 feet (4.6 m) advancement. On December 22, 2004, the shaft sinking was completed. Finish work on the shaft continued until March 7, 2005.
that holds fifteen people on each level. Because of the large size of mining equipment and the limited size of the elevator shaft, most of it had to be disassembled to go underground. Then, of course, had to be put back in working order. Reversing that process to take out obsolete equipment would be inefficient considering there is plenty of space in the mine to just abandon it. So there have been many more downs than ups involving mining machinery and vehicles. And over the years, numerous no-longer-used items have accumulated throughout the mine, creating sort of an ever-expanding time capsule.
Therefore it also created an invaluable resource for Salt Museum curator
s. They scoured the 67 miles (107.8 km) of mined caverns at the Hutchinson Salt company. The artifacts they were able to collect have significantly contributed to the scope of the museum displays.
The weather in Kansas may be erratic and unpredictable, but conditions underground are very predictable and constant. The mine naturally maintains a temperature of 68 degrees with a relative humidity of around 45%. The mine chambers are very large, ranging in size from 2,500 to 15000 square feet (1,393.5 m²) with ceiling heights ranging from 11 to 17 feet (5.2 m). Since 1954, anyone going into the mine has been required to wear a hard hat
and rescue breather. In the history of Hutchinson’s salt mine, no visitor or mine employee has ever needed to use the breather. The Mine Safety and Health Administration
, which regularly inspects all aspects of the operation, considers the Hutchinson mine one of the safest in the world.
The material used for much of the museum flooring is very similar to concrete; but instead of sand, salt is used with the cement and water. Thus, it is known as Saltcrete
. With the ready availability of the salt, it is definitely practical and cost effective for the museum. Saltcrete does leach – emitting a fine dust of salt – until it is cured, which takes approximately one year. It has limited applications because water makes Saltcrete blister and disintegrate.
s are train-like vehicles. In this gallery, two of the mantrips used to transport miners to and from the mining area are featured. The rail system was used until the 1980s when miners started using vehicles modified for B100 bio-diesel. The vehicles used underground are usually scrap yard cars taken apart to fit on the hoist, then reconfigured underground to drive on bio-diesel, and with extra seats and rollbars added.
The next pillar of the Mining Gallery is the blast area, which illustrates how the room being mined is wired with explosives. On display is a powder car. It was formerly a drill, but was modified underground as a powder car and carried all the tools and materials needed to powder a room, including the explosives and wire.
The third phase of the mining process featured is the Load Area. Miners used the Joy Loader on display from the 1940s until 1983 when the rail system was discontinued. Named for its manufacturer, the Joy Loader increased efficiency by eliminating the need to hand-load ore cars. This large piece of equipment, as so many others, was brought down the shaft in pieces and welded back together underground. Once a piece of equipment is underground, it remains. When equipment finally outlives its usefulness, it is usually abandoned in an area already mined.
The shuttle featured in this gallery was also used from the 40s until 1983 to take salt from the mine face to the loading station at the main rail line. Powered by a DC
extension cord, the car reduced labor and increased efficiency because miners no longer had to lay rails to get the salt from the blast site to the main rail lines.
. With a focus on the Permian Period (the sixth and last period of the Paleozoic Era), the gallery illustrates the animals that lived during this time and why there are no fossil records in the salt bed. Throughout the mine, water bubbles can be found trapped in some of the salt. These fluid inclusions
are believed to have occurred during the Permian Period.
The Fluid Inclusion Exhibit features the world’s oldest living organism, estimated to be about 250 million years old. The unprecedented discovery of living bacteria found trapped inside a salt crystal is the work of Drs. Russell Vreeland, William Rosenzweig, and Dennis Powers. Their findings indicate the cells from which those spores presumably formed were alive and active before the time of dinosaurs. The three scientists were at the museum for the exhibit opening and collected salt samples from the Hutchinson mine for further research.
and Ben Hur
, as well as television show masters. UV&S also stores medical records, oil and gas charts, and a host of other valuable documents and other materials from all 50 states and many foreign countries.
Businesses prefer this storage because of the constant temperature and relative humidity, the high security level created by “shaft only” access, and the mine’s safeguard from natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, hurricanes or earthquakes.
Underground Vaults and Storage and the Kansas Underground Salt Museum have been loaned several artifacts and actual costumes from popular movies. The temporary exhibit includes such notable memorabilia as Batman
and Mr. Freeze
costumes from Batman & Robin, James Dean
’s shirt from Giant, the Snowman
from Jack Frost
, and Agent Smith
’s costume from The Matrix
.
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
’s surface. It is a unique destination attraction for exploring an amazing environs carved from salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
deposits formed 275 million years ago. The museum is located in the Hutchinson Salt Company mine which began operation in 1923 as Carey Salt Company. There are just 14 other salt mines in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, none of which are accessible to tourists. Two European cities – Wieliczka, Poland
Wieliczka
-External links:***...
and Salzburg, Austria – however, have long had salt mine attractions.
The Salt Mining Industry in Hutchinson
A vast expanse underground, the Hutchinson Salt Company mine covers about 920 acres. If one were to consecutively line up each excavated area, the chamber would stretch for 67 miles (107 km). Natural pillars of solid rock salt 40 feet square are left intact to support each corridor or “room”.Since 1923, Hutchinson Salt Company (formerly Carey Salt) has produced rock salt by the room and pillar
Room and pillar
Room and pillar is a mining system in which the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane while leaving "pillars" of untouched material to support the roof overburden leaving open areas or "rooms" underground...
mining fashion, which begins with a shaft sunk through the overlying rock to the salt deposit. The salt is removed in a checkerboard
Checkerboard
A checkerboard or chequerboard is a board of chequered pattern on which English draughts is played. It is an 8×8 board and the 64 squares are of alternating dark and light color, often red and black....
pattern, in which large square caverns alternate with square pillars of salt that serve as support for the rock above. This pattern of mining also provides fresh, ventilated air in worker-occupied areas.
Blasting breaks the salt into manageable pieces, which are conveyed to crushers and removed
to the surface through the shaft with large buckets on the hoist. Because of the impurities (mostly shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
and anhydrite
Anhydrite
Anhydrite is a mineral – anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the orthorhombic barium and strontium sulfates, as might be expected from the...
), rock salt is used primarily as road salt. The method of producing rock salt has changed significantly over the years from men hacking
at the salt-face with pick-axes to a highly efficient, modern industry. Every step of the journey that salt makes from the mine to the finished product is modern, mechanized, and efficient.
Another form of mining, solution mining or the evaporation
Evaporation
Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which, instead, occurs on the entire mass of the liquid....
process, is performed at Cargill
Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated is a privately held, multinational corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Founded in 1865, it is now the largest privately held corporation in the United States in terms of revenue. If it were a public company, it would rank, as of 2011, number 13 on the Fortune 500,...
Salt and Morton Salt
Morton Salt
Morton Salt is a United States company producing salt for food, water conditioning, industrial, agricultural, and road/highway use. Based in Chicago, the business is North America's leading producer and marketer of salt. It is a subsidiary of the German company K+S.-History:The company began in...
, both located in Reno County. Water is forced down a pipe into the salt deposit where it dissolves
Dissolution (chemistry)
Dissolution is the process by which a solid, liquid or gas forms a solution in a solvent. In solids this can be explained as the breakdown of the crystal lattice into individual ions, atoms or molecules and their transport into the solvent. For liquids and gases, the molecules must be compatible...
into brine
Brine
Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...
which is pumped to the surface and heated to the point of evaporation, leaving behind a high grade of salt. Nearly everyone uses some type of evaporated salt every day.
The mine elevator is called the “skip” in the mining industry. Fully loaded it carries four tons of salt and makes a round trip every three minutes. This loaded skip is hoisted to the top electrically by a wire rope with jute core, and is used to transport miners to and from the mine as well as bring the mined salt topside.
Museum visitors ride on electric trams driven by docents for The Dark Ride segment of the visit underground. Miners have a different form of transportation—vehicles that run on bio-diesel fuel
Biodiesel
Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
, or B100
Biodiesel
Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
, a fuel that is almost 100% cooking oil. After the rail system was discontinued, miners switched to an alternative way to get around the mine—old junk cars. Initially, these cars were modified to run on diesel, but have been updated to use bio-diesel because it doesn’t leave particles in the air. The Hutchinson Salt Company mine was the first mine in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
to convert underground vehicles to B100 fuel.
Salt produced at the Hutchinson Salt Company is called rock salt, and about 500,000 tons is mined each year. It is principally used for industrial purposes and for de-icing highways. When finely ground, it is used for feeding livestock. It is not used for table salt or other purposes requiring a very pure type of salt.
In contrast, salt produced through the evaporation process produces common table salt, as well as salt used by pharmaceutical companies, food processors, and agricultural and chemical businesses.
All that empty space. Mines that are no longer in production can be used for a variety of purposes. Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
s of all likes have proposed using them for everything from prisons to massive chicken coops. The Hutchinson
Hutchinson, Kansas
Hutchinson is the largest city in and the county seat of Reno County, Kansas, United States, northwest of Wichita, on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887, thus its nickname of "Salt City", but locals call it "Hutch"...
mine is home to Underground Vaults & Storage, a secure facility housing documents, artifacts, and other valuable material from around the world.
Although natural gas companies sometimes use salt caverns for storing reserves and a salt mine in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
even stores radioactive waste, the Hutchinson salt mine has never been used for anything other than storage of records—and now, of course, the Museum.
The Reno County Historical Society
The Reno County Historical Society was organized by thirteen interested citizens in 1960, and received its charter from the Kansas Historical SocietyKansas Historical Society
The Kansas Historical Society is the official state historical society of Kansas.Headquartered in Topeka, it operates as "the trustee of the state" for the purpose of maintaining the state's history and operates the Kansas Museum of History, Kansas State Archives and Library, Kansas State Capitol...
in 1961. The Society did not have a permanent home for a museum until 1963 when it opened in five rooms in the downstairs area of a home belonging to RCHS founder and then president, Goldie Maupin. Mrs. Maupin lived in the home originally built by one of the former mayors of Hutchinson, J.P. Harsha, for whom the large drainage canal on the outskirts of the city was named. By 1967, the society’s collections outgrew the Harsha House and the Reno County Historical Museum was moved to nearby Haven, Kansas
Haven, Kansas
Haven is a city in Reno County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,237.-History:The Reno County Museum was originally located in Haven.-Geography:Haven is located at...
, a smaller community located thirteen miles (19 km) southeast of Hutchinson.
In Haven, the museum thrived for the first few years. Community leaders believed the museum would provide an anchor for downtown growth and the development of tourism in Haven. Efforts to gain a tax base for support from the Reno County mill levy for the museum were unsuccessful, however. The museum’s home in historic Township Hall also began to deteriorate during the early 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
. The roof began to leak and the basement periodically flooded. Collections storage areas also filled to capacity and the museum was forced to stop collecting artifacts in 1976. By that time, the collection had grown to approximately 10,000 artifacts, some of which were lost or ruined due to the terrible condition of the building and the lack of environmental control. Community support also ebbed as the condition of the museum facility grew worse. During the early 1980s the museum was only open on Sunday afternoons, and by appointment.
In 1984, the Reno County Historical Society’s Board of Directors began a campaign to bring the museum back to the more heavily populated city of Hutchinson – which is also the county seat of Reno County. The Board convened a site selection committee and began a development fund drive that ultimately led to the purchase of the Kline Insurance Building and the Rosemont Hotel. Part of the funds were used to construct a link between the adjacent buildings and to establish the Borton Memorial Garden near the entrance to the museum. The first professional Director and Curator were hired in 1985, and the museum opened its doors on December 12, 1986 at its present location. In 1989, the museum began publishing ‘’Legacy: The Journal of the Reno County Historical Society’’.
In 1996 and 1997, the museum redesigned its public space to include five exhibit galleries, two children’s interactive areas, a research room, and the Houston Whiteside
The Hutchinson News
The Hutchinson News is a daily newspaper serving the city of Hutchinson, Kansas in the United States. The publication was awarded the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service "for its courageous and constructive campaign, culminating in 1964, to bring about more equitable reapportionment of the...
Conference Room, named for one of the society’s benefactors. In 1996, the museum developed the Celebrate History educational program for elementary school students, which annually hosts over 1200 students from the Reno County area. In 1997, the Kansas Department of Transportation
Kansas Department of Transportation
The Kansas Department of Transportation is a state government organization in charge of maintaining public roadways of the U.S. state of Kansas.-Organization:*Secretary of Transportation...
granted the museum’s request to relocate the 1876 John Siegrist claim House to museum grounds, thus saving the structure from demolition. The Claim House opened to the public in September 1998.
In 1998 and again in 2000, the RCHS received the prestigious General Operating Support grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is an independent agency of the United States federal government established in 1996. It is the main source of federal support for libraries and museums within the United States, having the mission to "create strong libraries and museums that connect...
in Washington D.C.
In 1998 the RCHS began a long range planning process that resulted in the idea of creating a major exhibition about the salt industry in Reno County. That idea grew to become the Kansas Underground Salt Museum.
Construction
Beginning in 1923, miners and visitors went underground in groups no larger than ten, as that was the maximum capacity of the one-and-only elevator. It was a dark, dank ride that often sprinkled salt on riders.The shaft never took up a load of salt while carrying miners. In fact, when the elevator transported people, salt production below had to stop. For this reason, the visionaries of the salt museum knew a project could not get underway without construction of a new shaft. In cooperation with Underground Vaults & Storage, the storage company located in the mine, the two entities agreed to share the cost of the shaft, making the Kansas Underground Salt Museum a viable reality.
The shaft had to be drilled through one of the world’s largest aquifers. The Ogallala Aquifer
Ogallala Aquifer
The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast yet shallow underground water table aquifer located beneath the Great Plains in the United States...
covers around 174000 square miles (450,657.9 km²) in eight states and can be as deep as 1000 feet (304.8 m). In this area, it’s known as the Equus Beds
Geology of Kansas
The Geology of Kansas encompasses the geologic history of the US state of Kansas and the present-day rock and soil that is exposed there. Rock that crops out in Kansas was formed during the Phanerozoic eon, which consists of three geologic eras: the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic...
and is about 130 feet (39.6 m) thick at the site of the museum. For efficient construction without water seepage, the aquifer was frozen. That allowed miners to dig through the aquifer and encase the shaft in concrete.
Shaft construction was handled by Thyssen Mining Company, a Canadian contractor. The project got underway March 8, 2004, and took just a day shy of one year to complete. Thyssen utilized the expertise of Moretrench American Corporation for the ground freezing. The process required the sinking of 24 separate pipes to a depth of 150 feet (45.7 m). A liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in a liquid state at a very low temperature. It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. Liquid nitrogen is a colourless clear liquid with density of 0.807 g/mL at its boiling point and a dielectric constant of 1.4...
and salt brine
Brine
Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...
solution pumped into the pipes brought the temperature down to freeze the aquifer.
Once the frozen condition was accomplished, excavation began using a crane and bucket
Bucket (machine part)
A bucket is a specialized container attached to a machine, as compared to a bucket adapted to the form of a human being...
method. The mining cycle consisted of drilling in six-to eight-foot increments, loading the area with explosives, blasting, then “mucking out” (removing) the blasted material from the shaft. The miners would then advance 15 feet (4.6 m) and pour the shaft’s concrete liner. This action was performed with every 15 feet (4.6 m) advancement. On December 22, 2004, the shaft sinking was completed. Finish work on the shaft continued until March 7, 2005.
The Museum
It’s a 70-second trip to the Kansas Underground Salt Museum 650 feet (198.1 m) below the Kansas prairie. Visitors ride in a double-deck elevatorDouble-deck elevator
Double-deck elevators are designed with two elevator cars that are attached, one on top of the other. This allows passengers on two consecutive floors to be able to use the elevator simultaneously, significantly increasing the passenger capacity of an elevator shaft...
that holds fifteen people on each level. Because of the large size of mining equipment and the limited size of the elevator shaft, most of it had to be disassembled to go underground. Then, of course, had to be put back in working order. Reversing that process to take out obsolete equipment would be inefficient considering there is plenty of space in the mine to just abandon it. So there have been many more downs than ups involving mining machinery and vehicles. And over the years, numerous no-longer-used items have accumulated throughout the mine, creating sort of an ever-expanding time capsule.
Therefore it also created an invaluable resource for Salt Museum curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
s. They scoured the 67 miles (107.8 km) of mined caverns at the Hutchinson Salt company. The artifacts they were able to collect have significantly contributed to the scope of the museum displays.
The weather in Kansas may be erratic and unpredictable, but conditions underground are very predictable and constant. The mine naturally maintains a temperature of 68 degrees with a relative humidity of around 45%. The mine chambers are very large, ranging in size from 2,500 to 15000 square feet (1,393.5 m²) with ceiling heights ranging from 11 to 17 feet (5.2 m). Since 1954, anyone going into the mine has been required to wear a hard hat
Hard hat
A hard hat is a type of helmet predominantly used in workplace environments, such as construction sites, to protect the head from injury by falling objects, impact with other objects, debris, bad weather and electric shock. Inside the helmet is a suspension that spreads the helmet's weight over the...
and rescue breather. In the history of Hutchinson’s salt mine, no visitor or mine employee has ever needed to use the breather. The Mine Safety and Health Administration
Mine Safety and Health Administration
The Mine Safety and Health Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Labor which administers the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 to enforce compliance with mandatory safety and health standards as a means to eliminate fatal accidents, to reduce...
, which regularly inspects all aspects of the operation, considers the Hutchinson mine one of the safest in the world.
The material used for much of the museum flooring is very similar to concrete; but instead of sand, salt is used with the cement and water. Thus, it is known as Saltcrete
Saltcrete
Saltcrete is a mixture of cement with salts and brine, usually originating from liquid waste treatment plants. Its role is to immobilize hazardous waste and in some cases lower-level radioactive waste in the form of solid material. It is a form of mixed waste....
. With the ready availability of the salt, it is definitely practical and cost effective for the museum. Saltcrete does leach – emitting a fine dust of salt – until it is cured, which takes approximately one year. It has limited applications because water makes Saltcrete blister and disintegrate.
The Dark Ride
A tram tour, the Dark Ride, is an optional opportunity that takes visitors through a maze of chambers beyond the museum area to see various features of the mine environment – with a brief pause to experience the sensation of complete darkness. The tour also includes a stop at a salt pile for a souvenir – filling a sample bag with salt crystals.The Mantrip Gallery
MantripMantrip
A mantrip is a shuttle for transporting miners down into an underground mine at the start of their shift, and out again at the end. Mantrips usually take the form of a train, running on rails and operating like a cable car, but mantrips may also be self-powered, for example by a diesel engine...
s are train-like vehicles. In this gallery, two of the mantrips used to transport miners to and from the mining area are featured. The rail system was used until the 1980s when miners started using vehicles modified for B100 bio-diesel. The vehicles used underground are usually scrap yard cars taken apart to fit on the hoist, then reconfigured underground to drive on bio-diesel, and with extra seats and rollbars added.
The Mining Gallery
Visitors learn about all aspects of the modern-day mining process, as well as earlier procedures, through this three-part gallery. In the Undercut and drill area, the mine is set up for the first phase of a blast. An undercutter is used to cut a slot at the base of the rock, making it possible for the salt to drop. In this phase, a series of carefully sited holes are drilled into the salt wall.The next pillar of the Mining Gallery is the blast area, which illustrates how the room being mined is wired with explosives. On display is a powder car. It was formerly a drill, but was modified underground as a powder car and carried all the tools and materials needed to powder a room, including the explosives and wire.
The third phase of the mining process featured is the Load Area. Miners used the Joy Loader on display from the 1940s until 1983 when the rail system was discontinued. Named for its manufacturer, the Joy Loader increased efficiency by eliminating the need to hand-load ore cars. This large piece of equipment, as so many others, was brought down the shaft in pieces and welded back together underground. Once a piece of equipment is underground, it remains. When equipment finally outlives its usefulness, it is usually abandoned in an area already mined.
The shuttle featured in this gallery was also used from the 40s until 1983 to take salt from the mine face to the loading station at the main rail line. Powered by a DC
Direct current
Direct current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...
extension cord, the car reduced labor and increased efficiency because miners no longer had to lay rails to get the salt from the blast site to the main rail lines.
The Geology Gallery
Visitors learn the physical and geological characteristics of the salt bed in KansasKansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
. With a focus on the Permian Period (the sixth and last period of the Paleozoic Era), the gallery illustrates the animals that lived during this time and why there are no fossil records in the salt bed. Throughout the mine, water bubbles can be found trapped in some of the salt. These fluid inclusions
Fluid inclusions
thumb|250px|Trapped in a time capsule the same size as the diameter of a human hair, the ore-forming liquid in this inclusion was so hot and contained so much dissolved solids that when it cooled, crystals of halite, sylvite, gypsum, and hematite formed. As the samples cooled, the fluid shrank more...
are believed to have occurred during the Permian Period.
The Fluid Inclusion Exhibit features the world’s oldest living organism, estimated to be about 250 million years old. The unprecedented discovery of living bacteria found trapped inside a salt crystal is the work of Drs. Russell Vreeland, William Rosenzweig, and Dennis Powers. Their findings indicate the cells from which those spores presumably formed were alive and active before the time of dinosaurs. The three scientists were at the museum for the exhibit opening and collected salt samples from the Hutchinson mine for further research.
Underground Vaults & Storage Gallery
While the 26-acre facility is a secured site in another area of the Hutchinson Salt Company mine not open to the public, Underground Vaults & Storage (UV&S) has replicated the look and set-up of its operation for the Kansas underground Salt Museum. The company is internationally known for its highly protective, secured storage capabilities, including being home to the original film of many movies, like Gone with the WindGone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
and Ben Hur
Ben-Hur (1959 film)
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...
, as well as television show masters. UV&S also stores medical records, oil and gas charts, and a host of other valuable documents and other materials from all 50 states and many foreign countries.
Businesses prefer this storage because of the constant temperature and relative humidity, the high security level created by “shaft only” access, and the mine’s safeguard from natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, hurricanes or earthquakes.
Underground Vaults and Storage and the Kansas Underground Salt Museum have been loaned several artifacts and actual costumes from popular movies. The temporary exhibit includes such notable memorabilia as Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and Mr. Freeze
Mr. Freeze
Mr. Freeze, real name Dr. Victor Fries , is a DC Comics supervillain, an enemy of Batman. Created by Bob Kane, he first appeared in Batman #121 ....
costumes from Batman & Robin, James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
’s shirt from Giant, the Snowman
Snowman
A snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture. They are customarily built by children as part of a family project in celebration of winter. In some cases, participants in winter festivals will build large numbers of snowmen...
from Jack Frost
Jack Frost
Jack Frost is a sprite-like character with roots in Viking lore. There, he is known as Jokul Frosti . In Britain and United States, Jack is a variant of Old Man Winter and is held responsible for frosty weather, for nipping the nose and toes in such weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, and...
, and Agent Smith
Agent Smith
Agent Smith is the main antagonist of The Matrix film series and multimedia franchise, mainly played by actor Hugo Weaving and briefly by actor Ian Bliss in the films and voiced by Christopher Corey Smith in The Matrix: Path of Neo.In 2008, Agent Smith was selected by Empire Magazine as number 84...
’s costume from The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
.
Further reading
- Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
- Images of America: The Carey Salt Mine by Barbara C. Ulrich