 Home | Recent News | Wichita | Museum Full of Surprising Sights 21 Sep 2007 Underground Salt Museum full of surprising sightsOur trip to the Underground Salt Museum was quite awe-inspiring. I had no conception of what I would be seeing so I was really surprised by the huge elevator that goes down 650' through total darkness. The elevator is the only way of getting people, tools, and machinery down to the work area. This is the only museum located in a working salt mine in the United States.
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The museum itself is massive. It is very hard to try to imagine the expanse of the salt--100 acres one way by 250 acres the other. It is beyond imagination all of the labor and machinery it has taken to carve out all of the tunnels that have been completed. The tunnels and flooring were all relatively smooth by comparison with caves, which are rough. According to the literature, the mine in Hutchinson is one of the largest in the world, with ceilings ranging from 11 to 17 feet in height. The rooms within the mine are very large, ranging in size from 2,500 to 15,000 square feet. The mine maintains a 68-degree temperature and 40% relative humidity year-round, making it a very pleasant environment.
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There was a pile of salt rocks that we stopped at along our tour of the tunnels and they said we could pick out a salt rock the size of the palm of our hand. The chunk of salt I picked out sparkled in the light like a jewel, it was amazing! The whole trip was amazing, I can't wait for the next one.
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