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Strataca
Strataca is a salt mine museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, located on the northwest corner of Yoder Road and Avenue G. It was previously known as the Kansas Underground Salt Museum. The museum is built within one of the world's largest deposits of rock salt, formed 275 million years ago, and provides the opportunity to go 650 feet (200 m) beneath the Earth’s surface. The museum is located in the Hutchinson Salt Company mine which began operation in 1923 as Carey Salt Company. There are 14 other salt mines in the United States, but Strataca is the only one accessible to tourists.
A vast expanse underground, the Hutchinson Salt Company mine covers about 980 acres (4.0 km2); if one were to consecutively line up each excavated area, the chamber would stretch for 150 miles (240 km). Natural pillars of solid rock salt 40 feet (12 m) 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 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. 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. Because of the impurities (mostly shale and anhydrite), rock salt is used primarily as road salt, or used to feed livestock.
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. 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.
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 does not leave particles in the air. The Hutchinson Salt Company mine was the first mine in North America to convert underground vehicles to B100 fuel.
The Reno County Historical Society was organized by thirteen interested citizens in 1960, and received its charter from the Kansas Historical Society 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 13 miles (21 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 poor 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.
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Strataca
Strataca is a salt mine museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, located on the northwest corner of Yoder Road and Avenue G. It was previously known as the Kansas Underground Salt Museum. The museum is built within one of the world's largest deposits of rock salt, formed 275 million years ago, and provides the opportunity to go 650 feet (200 m) beneath the Earth’s surface. The museum is located in the Hutchinson Salt Company mine which began operation in 1923 as Carey Salt Company. There are 14 other salt mines in the United States, but Strataca is the only one accessible to tourists.
A vast expanse underground, the Hutchinson Salt Company mine covers about 980 acres (4.0 km2); if one were to consecutively line up each excavated area, the chamber would stretch for 150 miles (240 km). Natural pillars of solid rock salt 40 feet (12 m) 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 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. 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. Because of the impurities (mostly shale and anhydrite), rock salt is used primarily as road salt, or used to feed livestock.
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. 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.
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 does not leave particles in the air. The Hutchinson Salt Company mine was the first mine in North America to convert underground vehicles to B100 fuel.
The Reno County Historical Society was organized by thirteen interested citizens in 1960, and received its charter from the Kansas Historical Society 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 13 miles (21 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 poor 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.
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