Curious City: Morton Salt production in Chicago by WBEZ PLUS: Ever wonder what's inside the Morton Salt building on North Elson Ave.? Curious City: Morton Salt production in Chicago from WBEZ on Vimeo. [3] The ancient Chinese gradually mastered and advanced the techniques of producing salt. top of the formation under Ohio, near the West Virginia boundary, reaches a maximum depth Some 400 million years ago, a vast expanse of salt deposits formed under much of Michigan, including the city of Detroit. of Michigan History magazine and Today, road deicing salt is the primary product. Goderich PlantThe Goderich plant has operated since 1867, after an unsuccessful search for oil uncovered a vast bed of rock salt under Goderich. Your email address will not be published. Detroit had a very large salt mine that was basically an underground industry underneath their city. Researchers examined past and current water data on the amount of salt flowing into the lake from 234 rivers and streams, according to Hilary Dugan, the study's lead author and assistant professor for the Center for Limnology at UW-Madison. You can still see the entrance at 12841 Sanders Street, but its only open for delivery trucks. The Detroit salt mine is a salt mine located 1,100 ft (340 m) below Detroit, Michigan. Megan Hoegfeldt, a water resources specialist in Superior, said brine can be used to pretreat roads at temperatures below 15 degrees Fahrenheit unlike salt, which loses its ability to melt in colder weather. State University. See. The Diggings is a resource for locating where mining claims are and have been. Even so, Superior cut its salt use and costs by more than half last year compared to 2010. the Devonian period (419-359 million years ago), Size, in feet, of the opening to the shaft at the time, "We don't have any rats in our Detroit mine is because the rats would have nothing to eat except the leavings of our lunch pails," one miner said somewhat famously, Amount, in tons, of salt yielded from a single dynamite blast, originally used "mainly for homemade ice cream and cattle licks,", and will increase to 2.5 million tons if a proposed expansion is approved. actually consists of a number of individual salt beds separated by layers of shale, The Detroit Salt Company is a part of the history and fabric of Detroit with nearly 100 years of operations. The biggest development in the industry in recent years is increased This variation in depth is in part attributed to a gradual There is it is a salt mine. In the Entire rooms are carved out in the salt, leaving behind massive stabilizing pillars, which, for some reason, have workers constantly looking over their shoulders. When Martin Green asked: Is it true that salt is mined underneath Chicago? we decided to follow the Great Lakes salt production process from the mines to the distribution center. The answer is NO! A radical change in salt production occurred in 1906 when the Detroit Salt and This material has been compiled for educational use only, The mine opened in 1910 and covers 1,500 acres (610 ha) underground. 3) The availability of low cost water transportation on the Great Lakes which facilitates The mine has lunch rooms for workers, a service depot, electric transformer rooms, a crushing plant, and dump trucks. Welcome to the Detroit Salt Company, a subsidiary of The Kissner Group. Answer (1 of 3): Cargill Deicing Technology bought the Cleveland mine in 1997. What is mined under the Detroit area? Evidently it is the Cargill mine that is the worlds largest. 1) A healthy market requiring salt for the meat processing industry, chemical industry, The five mines of the area are tapping the formation at the shallowest possible points. These formations within the mining area are relatively continuous and generally Source: Photograph by Randy Schaetzl, Professor of Geography - Michigan Best Answer. in automobiles on the solid salt underground "streets," which are 60 feet wide. Source: Photograph by Randy Schaetzl, Professor of Geography - Michigan use of the product for highway purposes. The mine is as deep as the CN Tower in Toronto is tall. Pillar size is adjusted so that the extraction or recovery The rooms vary in width from 30 to 60 ft and in height Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. Required fields are marked *. 300 North Harbour Road WGoderich, Ontario N7A 3Y9519.524.8351. The Chinese writer, poet, and politician Zhang Hua of the Jin dynasty wrote in his book Bowuzhi how people in Zigong, Sichuan, excavated natural gas and used it to boil a rock salt solution. Three important factors lie behind the location and development of the Detroit salt mining Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Miners rode down to the mine smushed face to face in a tiny elevator. It is the Detroit Salt Mine, and, as a Detroit industry, it is older than automobiles. Detroit Salt produces 1.7 million tons of salt annually, and will increase to 2.5 million tons if a proposed expansion is approved. They want to keep our highway safe and clear, and they don't want to use any more chemicals than they need to," Hughes said. [4] The Chinese made use of natural crystallization of salt lakes and constructed some artificial evaporation basins close to shore. Michigan are located in Detroit, while solution mining takes place along Lake Michigan and Please contact Randall Schaetzl (soils@msu.edu) Tours of the mine currently being offered. area: Actual mining is confined completely to the salt bed. from approximately 17 to 40 ft. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite (commonly known as rock salt), and extracted from evaporite formations.[1]. One may also ask, is it hot or cold in the Detroit Salt Mine? Reduced in size, the product is taken by conveyer to an underground screening plant where [2] In 1041, during the Song dynasty, a well with a diameter about the size of a bowl and several dozen feet deep was drilled for salt production. "It's good to know that what we're seeing is not catastrophic by any means, but we should be aware that it is increasing," said Dugan. In three minutes, the skip drops nearly 1,700 feet below Cleveland. The Salt Institute's page on Michigan salt says that estimated salt deposits in Michigan are astronomical. Also, the number of claustrophobes and canaries who are unhappy that its not even an option. width are left for roof support. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). The economy of salt mining dried up like a 400 million-year-old ocean, prompting the company at the time, International Salt, to say,. salt can be economically recovered. The salt beds themselves contain bands of anhydrite which vary in The Sifto Salt Mine produces over 7 million tons of rock salt annually, which is enough to meet the demand in the Great Lakes region. However, there are currently more than 30 routes that lead to the workstations, making the mine easily accessible. ", "Shovel first. Nov 23, 2022, 6:47 pm. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. The salt mine was discovered in 1866 by Sam Platt during a search for oil. Public tours are currently unavailable. For questions or comments, contact WPRs Audience Services at 1-800-747-7444, email listener@wpr.org or use our Listener Feedback form. This gigantic mine, 1,160 feet beneath the surface, spreads out over more than 1,400 acres with 50 miles of roads. The findings come as the state has been making significant strides to reduce salt use on roads to curb pollution. Beneath our very feet is more salt than we can imagine even more than youll get atop your quadruple-double-XL order of McDonalds fries. Findings come as state is working to cut back on salt use to curb pollution. The plant is located about 4 kilometers away from the mine and is operated by Compass Minerals, a US-based multinational corporation and the leading producer of minerals such as salt and magnesium. State University. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. However, miners at the Sifto Salt Mine have perfected the process. Last year, the state used a record 11.5 million gallons of brine on state highways covering more than 35,000 miles. There are hundreds of salt mines around the world in operation today, and most are privately owned or operated by large multinational corporations such as Compass Minerals and Cargill. Copy. According to the Detroit Salt Company, 400 million years ago, ocean water flooded into a large basin, an area known as the Michigan Basin. How far under Lake Erie is the salt mine? Province, and in the U. S. from the "Dakotas" to western New York State. the International Salt Company assumed control of Michigans only underground salt However, miners at the Sifto Salt Mine have perfected the process. As a geological entity, this salt deposit is older even than the dinosaurs. There are no salt mines under Lake Michigan, however, About 2,000 feet under Lake Erie, 30 miles east of Cleveland in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, you'll find a vast site called the Morton Salt Mine. salt is left to form the roof. A central Wisconsin food pantry grew fivefold during the pandemic. where it is lifted in nine-ton buckets. Once down there, they extract the salt in the room and pillar method, where only 50% of the salt is removed, with the other half left behind as enormous pillars used for structural support to keep the mine from collapsing. But there is another part of the city far fewer people seem to be aware of, and it lies directly underneath their feet. It has operated since 1959 and was acquired by Compass Minerals in 1990. The only surviving prototype for Buckminster Fuller's house of the future. One Curious City question prompted us to find out. The rock salt produced at the mine is used to keep citizens in North America safe as they travel through winter snow and ice. in Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario. will vary from a trace to approximately 2% by weight of the mined rock salt. Then the giant metal door swings open, and you're deposited in an other-world, with walls, ceiling and floor made of salt. Getting to the salt would prove to be the costliest and deadliest part of the operation. Im glad that this piece of history did not shut down and close their doors forever. Men work in the salt mine underneath Detroit in this undated photo. The salt is packaged at the plant and shipped to several destinations. For the secret CIA prison, see. Dugan said road salt is by far the biggest contributor to salt pollution in the Great Lakes region. Chris Stuber is crushed into a form that is "road ready". "But because of the volume of Lake Michigan, that concentration is still pretty low.". mine, which consists of 100 miles of tunnels, has never experienced a collapse or mine The 5 most ridiculous things about Michigan's state flag, 12 wild and weird facts about the largest fish you can catch in the Great Lakes, The historic futility of the Detroit Lions: a very sad timeline, 8 fascinating facts about Iron Mountain, Tom Izzo's hometown, Torch Lake is Michigan's own slice of the Caribbean, A guide to the 9 drive-in movie theaters still standing in Michigan, This Northern Michigan drive-in movie theater is a nostalgia trip, 6 places to sip a Michigan beer along the White Pine Trail, These three Hollywood movies filmed at the same Niles train station. Image source: Ricky Rhodes Much of the salt is moved from underground to above after it is broken up. Compass Minerals' Goderich salt mine, located 1,800 feet under Lake Huron, is the largest underground salt mine in the world. 2023 Compass Minerals. Trucks powered by electricity take it to a giant crusher underground. dust, and the presence of sound roof and ribs as well as comfortable temperatures of 55 State University, Source: Photograph by Randy Schaetzl, Professor of Geography - Michigan The Detroit Salt and Manufacturing Company began digging in 1906, and went bankrupt trying to complete the task. Highway The Cargill salt mine beneath Lake Erie Watch on Down, down, down. A large square cavern alternating with pillars of salt is left behind. Generally speaking, the absence of gas, water, excessive In the mine, the temperature is between 56 and 60 degrees in all season. (halite). Where is the World's Largest Underground Salt Mine? Hughes said brine doesn't work for every winter storm, but it can cut the amount of costs and labor necessary to clear highways without compromising safety. "There's a tremendous amount of salt going into the lake each year," said Dugan. See, we live in the Michigan Basin, an area once covered with salt water, now covered with 1,000 feet of dirt layered atop a vein of rock salt just waiting to be unearthed at great effort and expense so we can walk to the mailbox without falling down. 1 of 2. Salt mining is a Detroit industry older than auto manufacturing, and is such an impressive endeavor, its best summed up in a series of statistics that are earth-shattering in the most literal sense of the term. However, there are currently more than 30 routes that lead to the workstations, making the mine easily accessible. It was over 1,500 acres big and had over 100 miles of roads making up this underground salt mine. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. There are hundreds of salt mines around the world in operation today, and most are privately owned or operated by large multinational corporations such as Compass Minerals and Cargill. Offer subject to change without notice. Electric shovels dip the salt into trailers the control. This mine stretches from Dearborn all the way to Allen Park. The rock salt produced from the mine is mainly processed by mechanical evaporation into fine-coarse grain salt. Years that have passed since the salt was discovered. tons of salt. This bed - extending from upper New York to Michigan - was formed 410 million years ago. Oil drillers accidentally discovered the deposit in the 1860's. Amount, in tons, of salt yielded from a single dynamite blast. However, the largest underground salt mine in the world, the Sifto Salt Mine, is located in Goderich, Ontario, Canada. 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