Hutchinson Kansas, The Strataca Salt Mine, June 2017

          Strataca Salt Mine, Hutchinson KS June 2017

    Our next stop after Branson MO was Hutchinson Kansas, a trip of 356 miles. It was one of the longest trips we traveled in one day. We did a lunch stop and a few stops for gas etc. But was that a long day. It was a Sunday so traffic was lite.  We used mostly the blue routes or secondary roads. Blue route meaning the blue line on a map, but who uses maps any more with GPS and phone mapping. Well, we do. It is hard to see several states or a whole state on a phone. A good example is looking at the north west US all at once to plan a route you want to take. That's why we use maps. I like to see my options.
     Our reason for stopping in Hutchinson KS was to visit the Strataca salt mine.  The mine was one of Kansas's "8 wonders of Kansas". We also visited the town of Yoder, a Amish community. A little disappointing to us when we lived so close to Lancaster PA, a very large Amish community by comparison. We are spoiled I guess.
     Back to the mine. It is a museum 650 below the surface.


 It is a mine tour you walk the gallery and see several videos along the tour.

 There are two short train rides. The "dark train" ride was very informative. Our guide on that part of the tour was super. It was amazing how dark, dark really is with no light whatsoever. When all lights were turned off you could not see your hand in front of our face.

I think Linda has her eyes closed

Mike Rowe of the discovery channels "Dirty Jobs" did one of his "jobs" here at the mine.

 Most of the salt mined here is used for road salt.

The storage facility is used because of constant temperature and humidity. Thousands of movie reels are amount the many items stored here.

This is our sister city when we lived in Pennsylvania

Bob looking for that perfect souvenir

You can see more about the mine  at www.underkansas.org