The Events of Wednesday, August 18, 2010

          Today, we woke up at 7:30, determined to get to our museum tour early. As it turned out, the Kansas Underground Salt Museum didn’t have much “topside”, or above ground. Instead of reading exhibits, we watched parts of an episode of Dirty Jobs, where a crew came to Hutchinson to film salt miners at work. At 10:00, our tour guide came to give us our safety equipment and then take us down. We received our hard hats (mandatory) and self-rescuers (what an oxi-moron!), which would be used during a fire. However, there have never been any fires in the salt mine; ironically, the only thing in the mine that would burn would be the wooden stands for the fire extinguishers. For you English buffs, that is considered situational irony.

          After a 90 second elevator ride in which we descended 650 feet into the earth, we began our tour. On our tour, Rich (our tour guide) pointed out some curiosities in the passageways, including scars, layering, and markings. We learned all about the process by which salt is mined. First, the rock on the 10 foot face is undercut and overcut so there is a 2 inch tall, 13 foot deep gap on the top and bottom a 50 foot long piece of rock. Then, they use super-powered hydraulic drills (Can I get some of these, Mom?) to drill blast holes. Finally, they set up the ANFO caps to blast. ANFO is an explosive made of ammonium, nitrate, and diesel fuel. It is much safer and easily controlled than dynamite. Once the first shift has left for the day, the blasting team can safely blow up the face. The next shift hauls the blasted salt and loads it onto a conveyer belt. This two mile belt takes it all the way to a crusher, where it is broken into softball-sized chunks. Once hauled above ground, it is then processed into small powders. The salt from this mine is not used for table salt; instead, it is used for animal feed, agricultural uses, and melting road ice. A crew typically blasts about 5 walls per day, so that is 32,500 cubic feet of salt removed. That equates to quite a lot of salt, about 250 tons per day. That’s a LOT OF SALT!

          After that came the exhibits about the geology of the mine. The salt was the remnant of an ancient sea, believed to be about 275 million years ago. Around the 1980s, water pockets were discovered in the salt, which contained live bacteria that need salt in their environments. From 275 MILLION YEARS ago!!! It was really cool. At the end of the walking part of the museum was the exhibit about the Underground Vaults and Storage Company. It stores important documents, artifacts, and important items from throughout history 650 feet underground. Safe from earthquakes, nuclear missiles, terrorism, fire, and flood—it’s pretty smart if you think about it!

          After this exhibit was the “Dark Ride”, a ride on a tram through mined passageways. I got to ride shotgun with Ralph, our tour guide. He joked that I was going to get us back. Along the ride, we saw several chunks of pure (recrystallized) salt, which was clearish-white. It stood out from the rest of the rock salt, which was dirty gray. Along this route, we also saw several artifacts from mining in the area in the 1950s. Since they have to disassemble all equipment for transport into the mine and then reassemble it underground, our tour guide’s words held true: “Whatever comes into the mine stays in the mine; except we’ll try to get you out.” We drove up to a pile of mined salt, where we got to fill a bag with salt. Ralph gave me a piece of clear salt with bubbles of water in it. No 275 million year old bacteria, though.

          Later, on the drive toward Kansas City, we stopped for the second of the “8 Wonders of Kansas” we were to see that day. The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was able to be conserved through the farming boom of the 1800s because agriculture was impossible due to the limestone beneath the grass. First we took a tour of the historic buildings on the site. These were unique because all of them, including an outdoor summer kitchen and the outhouse (a 3-holer!) were made of limestone, which was readily available. Even the huge, three story barn was of limestone. The house was also three stories and employed a unique cooling system. The pump room in the cellar was built around an underground spring. This kept the food stored nearby cool in the summer. In addition, full door size windows instead of doors were installed on every level in the front and back of the house. Tunnels were made in the limestone walls to combine the cool air from the cellar with the wind being blown off the prairie and effectively and efficiently cool the entire house. Then we went on a walk to the Prairie Overlook. However, this was a bit disappointing as the grass which is supposed to grow to the height of the saddle horn of a horse, only reaches this towering height in the fall. After this adventurous day, we drove on to the Kansas City Costco for dinner and then on to our camping spot in Independence, Missouri. As it was once said, “We aren’t in Kansas anymore!” (for you uncultured swine, that is from The Wizard of OZ).