It’s winter, so sooner or later we’ll have snow and ice in Kansas City. Our TV meteorologists start warning us about a pending snowstorm, complete with freezing rain, ice, and all of the pleasures of living in the Midwest in January.
And then they cut to a reporter standing out on the edge of the interstate talking about the road crews spreading salt and more to keep our highways as safe as possible.
But have you ever given a thought to all that salt? Is it the same kind of salt we put on our French fries? Where does salt come from?
The answer to these questions and more is about three hours southwest of us in Hutchinson, Kansas. And once you get to Hutch (as the locals call it), put on a hard hat and descend 650 feet below ground.
This is where you’ll find the Hutchinson Salt Company, one of 15 mines in the U.S. and one of three in Kansas that produces most of the road salt needed to keep the U.S. moving in winter months.
The others are in Kanapolis and Lyons, each producing about 500,000, or nearly 1.5 million tons, of salt each year.
Each year, our local municipalities and highway departments take bids for salt that they will later spread on our streets and roads. This year, Clay, Buchanan, and Daviess counties in Missouri have already stockpiled salt from Hutchinson, as have the cities of Liberty, Gladstone, and Parkville.
North Kansas City and most communities in Platte County get theirs from the mine in Lyons.
The Hutchinson Salt Company is the home base of Strataca, the Underground Salt Mine Museum, where all your questions and curiosities about salt will be answered.
When people started drilling for oil in southeast Kansas in the 1880s, they discovered salt instead. Kansas salt was created more than 250 million years ago when the Permian Sea covered this part of the world. It stretches from Kansas to Texas and New Mexico. Significant mining in Hutchinson did not start until the 1920s.
When you first step off the elevator underground, you’ll notice a couple of things simultaneously. If you have sinus problems or a cold, it will dry up almost immediately. Then a little later, your eyes will begin to feel dry. If you wear contacts, you might want to take them out in advance or bring extra drops.
Another thing you’ll notice is how sparkly the underground world looks. These are salt crystals in the walls and ceiling reflecting artificial light. It’s fascinating.
The Underground Salt Mine Museum is 2 1/2 miles long, so a little train takes you through some of the more remote areas of the tunnel. At one point, they stop and let you collect some salt fragments as a souvenir. Don't eat it. This is heavy-duty road salt and it doesn’t digest well. And don’t touch your eyes after touching the salt. Just ouch!
Among the crazy things you see 650 feet underground is a 60-year-old half-eaten roast beef sandwich in perfect condition.
When former employees and others in the community decided to build this museum, they weren’t quite sure what to do with much of the trash and debris from 80 years of people working underground. Those folks never really felt the need to carry their trash up top, only for it to be buried in a nearby landfill. So now the trash exists as kind of a time capsule of candy wrappers, soft drink cans and bottles, old magazines, and more. That includes a half-eaten roast beef sandwich, apparently a part of someone’s lunch, perfectly preserved by salt.
Another fun exhibit is a number of Hollywood props and movies. Of course, we know that many of the limestone caves in Kansas City keep many of Hollywood’s creations safe from the elements. So it is in Hutchinson.
Among the items you’ll see are sunglasses and memory-erasing guns from the "Men in Black" franchise, the snowman from the movie "Jack Frost" starring Michael Keaton, and the shield that Brad Pitt carried as Achilles in "Troy."
More exhibits showcase all sorts of tools and safety gear used to mine salt. This is an active mine, so every night around midnight, a blast of dynamite shakes a few more tons from the underground cavern.
When the roads are free of snow and ice, visit Strataca from Wed – Sat, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., or Sundays from 1 – 5 p.m. More information at underkansas.org.