HUTCHINSON – Located 600 feet underground, there’s only one way in or out of Hutchinson’s salt mines: Down its creaky and wobbling elevator shaft.
As the hoist lowers the elevator, it’s engulfed in darkness. The sunlight can no longer reach the hidden corners found deep in the earth.
A hundred years ago, this section of the Hutchinson salt mines would’ve been filled with workers slowly creating new passages through the crystallized walls.
But now, it’s known as Strataca, a museum dedicated to the history of mining and salt.
The halls that visitors walk through are massive and riddled with layers upon layers of salt. The temptation to lick them would be too great if it weren’t for the vigilant museum workers turning away would-be tasters.
About 250 million years ago, Kansas was underneath the shallow and yet immense Permian sea.
As time passed and the continents were formed, the remains of the ocean and its inhabitants formed deposits of resources like salt.
Venture off a little deeper in the mine and dozens of artifacts preserved through the ages can be found, like rundown mining carts, drills … and the guns from the "Men In Black" movie.
Salt absorbs moisture from the air and materials around it. That makes salt deposits like Strataca the perfect place to preserve artifacts like film reels and movie props.
Strataca’s mine specialist, Myron Marcotte, said that his favorite prop was unfortunately taken out.
“We had a Noisy Cricket here for a long time and when they made the third ['Men in Black'] movie I think, they took it out and never came back,” Marcotte said.
For him, the mine might as well be his second home. Before starting work at the museum, he worked there as a miner for 40 years.
“I wasn’t even gone a day because I retired and already knew I was going to work here,” Marcotte said.
He worked alongside museum staff to restore everything the miners abandoned underground before leaving.
Even the garbage left behind has been preserved as a part of the mine’s history.
But objects aren’t the only thing that Marcotte wanted the museum to focus on. There are dozens of hallways — the mine has 150 miles of tunnels — that the museum allows people to explore as part of their guided vehicle tours.
The mine’s three tours include a train ride, a dark ride and a "salt safari" that ventures out into an unincorporated area of the mine.
The safari’s hour-long ride through the mine’s halls becomes a time-traveling expedition. One second you’re looking at the remains of dynamite boxes left in the 1940s; turn a corner and suddenly you’re looking at markings someone left in the ’20s.
The ride is especially cool for tour guide Aaron Strain, who finds solace within the darkness of the cave.
“There is no other place like this in the western hemisphere; [it’s] basically an active salt mine you can go into,” Strain said. “It’s just cool.”
While Strataca’s original miners left long ago, it still shares space with the Hutchinson Salt Company, which has workers in separate areas of the mine.
“It’s awe inspiring to think that I could go behind a wall somewhere — obviously I’m not going to do it — and just find the miners basically,” Strain said. “They’re right here! They’re with us!”
That excitement is what Marcotte wants people to experience at the mines he used to work at. To feel even for a couple of hours, what it was like to be a worker underground.
“I call us an adventure museum,” Marcotte said. “It’s not just an old stuffy museum where you look at stuff and you’re done; we actually have adventures.”
As this adventure nears its end, the elevator ascends with visitors in tow, where rays of light are waiting to greet them.
