Strataca
Main Entrance in 2008
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| Established | May 1, 2007 |
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| Location | 3650 East Avenue G, Hutchinson, KS 67501 USA |
| Coordinates | 38°02′37″N 97°52′03″W / 38.043698°N 97.867554°WCoordinates: 38°02′37″N 97°52′03″W / 38.043698°N 97.867554°W |
| Type | Salt Mining |
| Website | underkansas.org |
Strataca is a salt mine museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, United States. 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 and provides the opportunity to go 650 feet (200 m) beneath the Earth’s surface. It is a unique destination attraction for exploring an 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 14 other salt mines in the United States, but none of them are accessible to tourists.
A vast expanse underground, the Hutchinson Salt Company mine covers about 980 acres. 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 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.
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Wikipedia