The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-06-08
IT RESTS ON SALT
Kansas Has, 1t Is Estimated, 20
TrilliOn Barrels of Seasoning.
Gulf of Mexico Left 1t Here
Ages Ago.
GREATEST SALT MINES
Hutchinson Salt. Works Are
Largest on Earth.
REATEST SALT MINES
Evaporation Process Simple
Salt Mining Easy.

The discovery Of a vein of salt more
than one hundred feet thick at Lincoln
Center, Kan, draws attention to the
immense beds of the product which lie
hundreds of feet deep under the soil of
the SunfIower state. A Stattstician mas
figured that there are more than ~
trilliv. barrels of salt in Kansas. The
deposit as outlined is one hundred and
Ilfty miles long and forty miles wide
and covers an area of about six thou
sand square miles, practically in the
center of the state from the north
boundary to the south. The beds range
from 400 to 1000 feet below the sur
face.
The salt came to Kansas millions of
years ago. 1t was when the Gulf or
Mexico extended hundreds of miles
north of the present coast line ana
submerged all of Kansas except, per-
haps, a small area in the northeastern
corner of the state. Gradually the sea
rose and fell and left at last great
inland ocean where Kansas now IS
Overlooking again and again, 1t estao-
lished anew each time q muddy bot
tom, and then, as the water dried up,
another layer of salt. This accounts
for the beds of shale, which divide the
great 3O0-foot salt deposit into veins Of
varying thickness.
The Geology of 1t.
Finally, the floods ceased-Kansas
went high and dry. The delta earth
filled the low places, and by the time
the earth was ready for the occupancy
of Ian, the salt of the vanished sea
was covered with hundreds of feet of
soil, on the surface of which now are
the homes of thousands of Kansas
farmers. AS sea water contains about
Is per cent salt, it is evident that the
inland sea which deposited this 300-foot
bed of salt must have aggregated one
nd va hundred aaf in d6ntl
else covered a very large area and
slowly drained into the basin which
now contains the salt beds.
Salt from the Kansas salt beds is OBJ
tanned by two Notwithstanding and
evaporation At Kanopolis and Lyons,
Kan, re salt mines. The greatest
output from the Kansas salt beds,
however, comes through the evapora-
ton process at Hutchinson. More salt
is shipped out of Hutchinson than any
other city in the world, size considered,
and this statement is practically true
without the limitation. At Hutchinson
is located the largest salt plant in the
world Approximately forty carloads
leave Hutchinson daily. Kansas could
supply the world with salt for a million
years and hardly miss it.
Process Is Simple.
The process of evaporation is simple.
Salt wells are drilled to depth of sew
eral hundred feet, and fresh water IS
sent down to the salt beds. Then it is
pumped out again and evaporated, usu-
ally by boiling. The result is nearly u
pint of salt to a quart of water. The
salt mines at KanapoliS and Lyons are
similar to coal mines, and the salt is
brought to the surface in blockS-rock
salt The same process of blasting used
in coal mines is used to loosen the
great salt veins.
Miners are seldom killed in salt as in
coal mines and the work is healthful.
There are none of the noxious gases to
be found that are prevalent in coal
mines. In one salt shaft in Lyons,
Kan, nearly one thousand feet under
ground, is a mine mule that has not
been brought to the surface in nine
years. and is none the worse for the
experience.
In the early history of this country,
before the salt mines were discovered,
the salt was taken directly from the
sea, the sea water being evaporated.
Salt first was discovered in Kansas
at Hutchinson in 1887. Notwithstand-
ing its inexhaustible supply of the pro-
duct, Kansas ranks third in production
-ansas product is said to rank first.
Michigan is first in salt production
and New York second. In 1888 Kansas
produced 1901 900 barrels; in 1900, 1,645.
$50, and in 1901, 2,087, 791 barrels. The
production is increasing annually. Ow-
ing to the cheapness of salt and the
cost of transportation the market for
the Kansas product is limited. 1t is
n shipped east of the Mississippi riv-
er, and it goes about the same distance
in other directions.