We heard from a couple of other campers we had met previously that the Strataca Mine and the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas were worth a visit. Sand Hills State Park is located minutes away from Hutchinson, so we looked at the online campground map, reserved a site and we’re good-to-go.
A two hour drive got us from Salt Plains SP to Sand Hills SP and we found our reserved campsite with no problem. When we reserved the site we saw that a particular loop in the campground had no reservations, so we booked a site in that loop. Apparently, the reason no other RV’s were in that loop is because it was the equestrian area. No mention about this during the reservation process! We were prepared to say that our dogs were really just small horses, however we were never challenged by any park ranger (never saw one) or camphost (there wasn’t one). So, we got to enjoy being all alone in the equestrian loop, even though we couldn’t really use the small horse corral in our site (each site in the equestrian area had it’s own small corral).
We almost left the campground shortly after arriving as we discovered the washrooms were all locked up. Again, no mention of this during the reservation process (could have had an impact on our decision of where to stay). A short “WTF” email to the park HQ got a quick response “we are having problems locating a camphost for the park and can’t open the washrooms yet”. Apparently, it is too much effort to place a note about this on the park website, and it is also too much effort to hire someone to maintain the washrooms until the camphost situation is resolved. Management fail.
The email from the park HQ did inform us that there was a vault toilet across the road at the start of a horse/walking trail. A quick investigation of these facilities found that they were a bit rough (no maintenance and no TP) and no door locks, but we decided it was better than using the bushes behind the campsite. To handle the no door locks issue I made up an “IN USE” sign that we could attach to the outside door handle, problem solved!
We didn’t take any photos of this campground, although a photo of the horse corrals would have been good. This was really just a place for us to stay while we visited the museum and mine.
We arranged doggy daycare for the kids, so that we could visit the space museum in the morning and the mine in the afternoon.
We had low expectations for the Cosmosphere (space museum) as one person had described it as “showing its age and a bit run down, but worth a visit”, but when we got there we were blown away. The museum was incredible. Not run down at all, and had an absolutely amazing collection of artifacts from several countries including: USA, Russia, and Germany.
The exhibits traced the development of rockets from the V1/V2 rockets in Germany to the space race between the US and Russia. We wanted to spend more time here, but we needed to head to the mine.
We highly recommend the Cosmosphere and hope to come back to spend more time, and take more photos.
One photo I did take that turned out well enough to post (I didn’t notice that the lens on my camera was dirty) was of the actual Liberty Freedom 7 capsule.
This space vehicle enabled Virgil “Gus” Grissom to become the second person in US history to be launched into space. The mission lasted 15 minutes and then splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. The capsule hatch accidentally blew open and allowed water to fill the capsule. Grisson was able to escape just before the capsule sank.
Thirty-eight years after sinking the Discovery Channel financed the recovery of the capsule, which was then donated to the Cosmosphere for refurbishment and display.
Our next event was a tour of the Strataca Salt Mine. This mine, which is still in production, is located 650′ below the surface on the outskirts of Hutchinson, Kansas. The elevator is not an office type of elevator, but a working mine elevator only takes 90 seconds to descend (popping of ears does occur) and is completely dark until arriving at the base level. There is a light in the elevator, but the tour guide leaves it off, so that you feel what it was like for the original miners, as they were packed in 16 at-a-time and had to extinguish their candle-powered headlamps during the descent.
A museum, located at the bottom of the mine, is in an area of the mine that is no longer in production.
There are many relics from the mines early days, including various equipment, rail cars, and vehicles. All the equipment in the mine had to be disassembled, transported in the elevator we just used and then reassembled in the mine
All of the salt mined here is for commercial (e.g. road salt) or agricultural use. Occasionally they come across “fluid inclusions” which are areas in the salt that filled with water and allowed impurities to drop to the bottom of the inclusion resulting in a purer area of salt. In this photo the whiter, purer salt is located in the center and lower right of the block. The normal, darker, less pure salt can be seen on the left.
In the beginning of the mines development, wooden structures were used to support the ceiling. The next photo shows an area where there was insufficient support and the ceiling collapsed.
The wooden structures were eventually replaced by leaving natural columns of salt in a regular pattern to support the ceiling.
Miners are paid by the hour, so no effort is made to clean up garbage: “what goes into the mine stays in the mine.
Mike Rowe hosted an episode of the show “Dirty Jobs” in 2007 in the producing area of this mine.
There were three parts to the mine tour: an area filled with exhibits that you walk around; a tour in a rail car on tracks; and a tour in a tram car (no tracks).
At the end of the final tour a surprise awaited us… Hollywood?!
A company called “Underground Vaults and Storage Inc.” purchased 26 acres (yes, acres) of no longer used mine space to be used for secure, climate controlled storage.
The display at the end of the mine tour included costumes, posters and other paraphernalia from Hollywood movies. Several film production companies storage film, digital data, costumes, etc here.
UVS Inc. also stores physical documents and digital data from worldwide customers.
Trip Summary:
Depart: Salt Plains State Park, OK 10:00 am Apr 12; Odometer: 136841 miles
Arrive: Sand Hills State Park, KS 1:00 pm Apr 12; Odometer: 136960 miles
Gas Summary:
Anthony, KS (Apr 12): 17.4g @ $3.09/g ($53.78) – ODO 136879 miles