S.A.L.T.

I've written in the past that I coach freshman volleyball at a local high school. Each year we have a team theme. This year it's SALT. It stands for Sacrifice, Aspire, Leadership and Tradition. It helps keep our girls focused and helps build their camaraderie with each other.

I don't feel this is a silly thing at all. Over the years the teams have learned about something important. One year we learned about the flight that went down in NY in the Hudson river. Another year we learned how penguins live and work together. This year, our head coach decided that SALT was going to be our theme. The girls' shirts have NaCl on them. Many had questions about it, but once we explained what NaCl stood for, many of them had that "Ah Ha!" moment.

We always take a little trip somewhere close that helps bring the theme to life. This year for our SALT theme, we went to the Hutchinson Underground Salt Museum. This museum is one-of-a-kind. You arrive, get your ticket and go learn about the safety precautions. You then get your gear on and get into a double decker lift/elevator and travel 650 feet down into the salt mines. The area that the museum occupies is about 1/4-3/8 mile away from a working salt mine.

This area of Kansas was under what was called the Permian Sea millions of years ago. You can see the different layers of sediment and salt that were layed down. Some layers are thicker than others and there is one specific layer that is more prominent than the others and runs through the mine. This line was used by miners to keep the floor level and to know how deep they were mining. 

The photo above is a large block of salt that is almost pure salt. Very little sediment is found it in. It is about three feet tall, five feet wide and about 4 feet deep. That's a big block of salt!

This pillar further into the mine has a vein of pure salt running through it. The color variations are amazing to see. There is lots of the salt in layers with sediment, then there are these larger veins and then there were some red salt deposits. When the salt was deposited, bacteria were growing in the water and caused the salt to turn a red color.

It is amazing what is down there! There are lots of old machinery dating back to the early 1900s and the early days of the mining. We toured through a storage area that showed how all types of records are stored. Old movie reels, medical records and newspapers are stored there. The salt mines are very good place to store all types of things due to the stability of the environment. Yes, metal does end up rusting due to the salt, but other types of things stay preserved.

I think we all learned a lot through this fun team trip. A return trip for me is definitely in order to go through and look at things closer. If you are ever visiting the Hutchinson area, stop by. I've only highlighted a few of the interesting facts here. You can visit their site here. http://underkansas.org/

It's worth it!



 

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