The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-09-10
KANSAS IS FOURTH
Among the States in the Pro-
ductiOn of Salt.
States Output for Past Year
Over Two Million Barrels.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10.-The production
of salt in the United States in 1911
amounted to 81, 1S3, 1853 barrels of ESQ
pounds each, valued at $S,345,692 ac-
cording to report just issued by the
United States geological survey.
Kansas ranked fourth among the
states in that year, both in quantity
and in value of salt produced. The out
put of salt in the Sunf1ower state for
the year was 2159, S59 barrels, 302,
$50 tons, valued at $SO6, O27, which was
considerably less than for the year 1910,
when the production of the state
amounted to 2,811, 44S barrels, or 1893, SOB
short tons, valued at $947 1863. The salt
was produced in 1911 as usual in ELS
worth and Kanopolis, Ellsworth coun-
ty; Lyons and Sterling, Rice county;
Hutchinson, Reno county; and Anth-
Ony, Harper county. A new company,
the Lyons Salt company, began opera
lions at Lyons in November, 1911.
The salt industry in Kansas depends
upon the rock salt found in Permian
strata and includes the mining of this
salt and the evaporation of artificial
brines from wells drilled to it. An
immense body of rock salt underlies
the surface in central Kansas. Its ex-
act horizontal boundary is not known.
1t probably does not reach to the
northern border of the state, but it is
known to extend southwark into Okla
homa. In thickness it varies up to 400
il
ers of salt Shale, limestone, anhydr1te,
and gypsum, the individual layers of
salt attaining a thickness of 20 feet or
more
BY far the larger part of Kansas salt
is obtainer by evaporation, but q con-
siderable quantity is obtained by min
Ing. The processes of obtaining salt by
mining and evaporation have been de-
scribed by Young and Ainsworth. IN
his first paper Young discusses the
evaporated-salt industry, which has its
&C inter- at Hutchinson. He describes the
manner of obtaining the brines from
the wells, the various processes direct
heating, grainer, and vacuum pan-of
converting the brine into salt, the
methods of handling the salt, and the
productive capacity of the district. In
the second paper he gives complete de-
scriptions of the occurrence, the his
tory of the sinking of the shafts, and
the operations connected with the min
ing of rock salt in central Kansas.
In 1887 and 1888 the important salt
beds of Kansas were found while wells
were being drilled for oil and gas
They have been developed in an al ca
located in the ssOuth-central part of the
state, in Rice, Reno, Kingman and
parts of the adjoining counties, includ-
ing Ellsworth, Saline, Mcpherson,
Harvey, Sedgwick, Sumner, Harper,
Barber, Pratt, Stafford, Barton and
Russell. In the early history of the
industries mum shafts were sunk
to the salt deposits, but from lack of
experience and funds to carry on the
work many of them proved failures.
Only three important operations may
be listed among the plants mining
rock salt at the present time.
The Kansas salt field was visited by
the writer in the fall of 1911 and the
mines were inspected, samples were
collected, and the methods of mining
and evaporating the salt were studied.
The observations made during that
visit are to be embodied II a report
now in preparation on the salt industry
in the United States, in which SPECIAL
attention will be paid to the subject
of potash salts.
According to the United States cen
sus bureau. there are 135,190 foreign
born white people in the state of Kan
sas Of this number 1O1,51 arrived
in the Sunhower state before January
l. 1901. From that date to April Is,
1910, there were a total of 3S,678 for
eign immigrants who made their
homes in the state.