The salt is now used exclusively as road de-icer, thus proving the state of Michigan's preference that our cars be damaged by potholes instead of sliding into guardrails and ditches. economical mining, China, the United States, and India rank as the top three producers of salt, and are home to some of the worlds largest salt mines. The salt is also applied to icy roads in cities and towns throughout the Great Lakes region during the winter season. salt are dark, reflecting the thin "muddy" seams in the salt (see the images Getting to the salt would prove to be the costliest and deadliest part of the operation. "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. 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. of approximately 6000 ft. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0; . 1 of 2. Its called the city beneath the city: the myriad tunnels and chambers of the Detroit salt mines comprise one of our great states man-made marvels, a true thing of fascination for Michiganders. -- Atlas Obscura's Guide to the World's Salty Wonders. miners here have mined out an area 22 feet high for about 300 acres. This one is a small storage shed of salt for the Meridian For years it produced tons of rock salt daily, most of which is used for ice However, miners at the Sifto Salt Mine have perfected the process. This video addresses this myth. Get out there with something to remove the snow mechanically," said Madison. The Detroit salt mine is a salt mine located 1,100 ft (340 m) below Detroit, Michigan. Six men were killed during the dig, and the Detroit Salt and Manufacturing Company was bankrupted in the process. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions 2023 worldatlas.com. ", "Shovel first. Public tours are currently unavailable. One 12-ounce mug of salt is enough for a 20-foot driveway.". Evidently it is the Cargill mine that is the worlds largest. The salt is shipped to hundreds of communities around the Great Lakes and along the St. Lawrence Seaway. 24 delicious places to pay homage to the most valuable rock in history. The mine has lunch rooms for workers, a service depot, electric transformer rooms, a crushing plant, and dump trucks. Your email address will not be published. Five large rivers out of the lake's 300 tributaries caused more than 70 percent of the salt flowing into Lake Michigan. A radical change in salt production occurred in 1906 when the Detroit Salt and Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. "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, thus curtailing the theory that Matt Millen went down there to live after the Lions canned him. This variation in depth is in part attributed to a gradual Heres an article about it: Salt mines are mines from which salt is extracted, typically in the form of rock salt, known as halite. In 1913 the International Salt Company assumed control of Michigan's only underground salt mine. Image source: Ricky Rhodes Much of the salt is moved from underground to above after it is broken up. Please contact Randall Schaetzl (soils@msu.edu) Manufacturing Company started sinking a shaft for underground mining of rock salt. The Sifto Salt Mine is located deep below the waters of Lake Huron. Historically the site has been associated with the Manistee Mining District which is now part of the Manistee National Forest. Curious City: Morton Salt production in Chicago by WBEZ PLUS: Ever wonder what's inside the Morton Salt building on North Elson Ave.? Lake Erie is a geological newcomer compared to the salt buried below it. Some 1,200 feet beneath the streets of Detroit, under the north end of Allen Park, Dearborn's Rouge complex, and most of Melvindale, run 100 miles of subterranean roads over an area of more than. Name County Years Material Coordinates Adventure mine: . Men work in the salt mine underneath Detroit in this undated photo. Other cities followed. Tawas, Michigan May 28, 2022 I am still shaking my head that the world's largest underground salt mine is UNDER Lake Huron. Then holes are drilled in the wall from The size of the room depends on the thickness of the salt deposit, although most rooms are 60 feet by 60 feet. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. Read further to see exactly what they are delivering. Wiki User. the movement of salt in Canada from eastern Saskatchewan Province to western Quebec The mine opened in 1910 and covers 1,500 acres (610 ha) underground. "But because of the volume of Lake Michigan, that concentration is still pretty low.". The salt is then crushed, and thousands of feet of conveyor belt move the salt to the hoisting shaft, where it is lifted out in ten-ton loads. I'll be sharing thoughts, photos and videos along the way - as I search for answers to questions that bother me so. where it is lifted in nine-ton buckets. Since 1959, the Fairport Harbor Morton Salt. The salt beds themselves contain bands of anhydrite which vary in Sign up now! or less to several inches. The mines were owned and operated by The Detroit Salt and Manufacturing Company. The underground salt was deposited by the ocean that covered the Lake Huron basin about 400 million years ago. The mine is as deep as the CN Tower in Toronto is tall. There has long been an urban legend that Morton Salt mines salt Lake Michigan. These formations within the mining area are relatively continuous and generally 2023 by Wisconsin Public Radio, a service of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Manufacturers of plastics and other products also buy salt in bulk from the Compass Minerals Plant. 2010-10-23 03:07:21. The plant also packages rock salt from the mine thatis used for deicing and water conditioning. in Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario. The Company pumps higher up in this page). State University. In the last several years, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation has been working to reduce salt use on the state highway . Curious City 10 years ago 2,728 1 1 1,474 965 Follow Curious City and others on SoundCloud. Actual mining is confined completely to the salt bed. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. For example, under Michigan the formation varies from Province, and in the U. S. from the "Dakotas" to western New York State. The biggest salt dry-mining operation in Michigan today Electric shovels dip the salt into trailers the In 1997, the Detroit Salt Company, LLC, purchased the mine from Crystal Mines, Inc. and began salt production in the fall of 1998. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. This empty Detroit high school was too expensive to maintain or destroy. But like much of Michigans mineral wealth, only a fraction of this 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. The Cargill salt mine beneath Lake Erie Watch on Down, down, down. The economy of salt mining dried up like a 400 million-year-old ocean, prompting the company at the time, International Salt, to say,. It has operated since 1959 and was acquired by Compass Minerals in 1990. sends the wall of salt crumbling down. Unlike a coal mine, the operation The Salt Institute's page on Michigan salt says that estimated salt deposits in Michigan are astronomical. million tons or 35% of the combined total produced in the U. S. and Canada. "That's a big game changer.". 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. Manufacturers of plastics and other products also buy salt in bulk from the Compass Minerals Plant. As a geological entity, this salt deposit is older even than the dinosaurs. For questions or comments, contact WPRs Audience Services at 1-800-747-7444, email listener@wpr.org or use our Listener Feedback form. Length, in feet, of the original mineshaft. 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). 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. Highway "In a world where everything's going up in price, winter maintenance costs in Wisconsin are going down," said James Hughes, the agency's chief state highway maintenance engineer. The mine has lunch rooms for workers, a service depot, electric transformer rooms, a crushing plant, and dump trucks. The Morton Salt Company Mine is near Oak Hill, Michigan. below, from a salt mine, shows a vertical "wall of salt" about a little over a "It's this nice liquid layer that soaks into the clear driveway or sidewalk or roadway, and then it prevents that buildup of ice and snow on the road," Hogfeldt said. There are hundreds of salt mines . Reduced in size, the product is taken by conveyer to an underground screening plant where Years the salt mine was abandoned, from 1983-1998. Where Is The World's Largest Underground Lake. Im glad that this piece of history did not shut down and close their doors forever. 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. The amount of salt used fluctuates depending on the winter. . The mineshaft opening is located at 12841 Sanders Street in Detroit, Michigan. Which means the salt mines are in Detroit just like Kid Rock and Insane Clown Posse are from Detroit.. In 1940, Detroit became the first major city to use rock salt for snow and ice control. Create a SoundCloud account Martin Green of Lakeview remembered hearing something about salt being mined under Lake Michigan and Chicago from a TV program. uses include the tons mixed with road bases to make for greater density and lower the control. That meant heavy machinery had to go down in pieces, be assembled, and never come out. For the secret CIA prison, see. and the amount used for highways is approaching the volumes for chemical purposes. Oil drillers accidentally discovered the deposit in the 1860's. This is a partial list of current and defunct mines in Michigan. area: The rock salt produced at the mine is used to keep citizens in North America safe as they travel through winter snow and ice. Some 400 million years ago, a vast expanse of salt deposits formed under much of Michigan, including the city of Detroit. 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. salt can be economically recovered. width are left for roof support. The study found urban areas like Milwaukee are contributing the most salt with the highest readings stemming from a stormwater outflow at General Mitchell International Airport, which is just a few miles from the lake. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. for more information or permissions. 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