Science
2009-08-01 12:16:00
The history of “Salt City”
Question: How did Hutchinson become the Salt City?
Answer: Eons before the great salt beds of Kansas were discovered by humans; bison, elk, deer and other animals licked salt crystals that formed in the salt marshes of Rice and Republic Counties.
Salt was found on top of the ground in Rice county in 1875 by some cowboys and a company was founded in Hutchinson to make salt. The salt marsh was not saline enough to be profitable however and the effort was abandoned. Then in 1886, a flashy land speculator named Ben Blanchard arrived in Hutchinson. One popular legend is that he was trying to escape a deal gone wrong in Terre Haute, Indiana. To elude the sheriff, who was on the same train, Ben arrived in Hutchinson dressed as a woman. What is known for sure is that Blanchard organized and laid out the city of South Hutchinson. Because he was having trouble selling property, he became interested in finding oil, that he was convinced, lay underground. Blanchard hired a firm to drill, but became worried as the days went by and no oil was found. On September 27, 1887, in order to ensure a discovery, he dumped a few barrels of oil into the hole when the drilling reached the appropriate depth. Eventually, the well was shown to be empty but did produce a vein of salt. The original well can be seen today in South Hutchinson.
Blanchard’s discovery of salt was the first significant find west of the Mississippi and within a year, there were 10 salt companies in Hutchinson. In June 1888, representatives of the Michigan Salt Association visited Hutchinson. One of the participants was Joy Morton. The group expected to start their own plant but saw the large number of active companies and decided that it wasn’t a good time to invest. Later Morton bought up several unprofitable and failing companies, and in 1907 built the one that exists today as Morton Salt brine evaporation plant in South Hutchinson. In 1893, the Barton family founded a brine evaporation plant in Hutchinson that still exists today as Cargill Salt. Emerson Carey opened a brine plant in 1901 and began mining the first rock-salt underground in Reno County in 1923. This salt mine has operated continuously since that time and now is known as the Hutchinson Salt Company.
Today, three separate businesses exist in the mine which covers 670 acres and has 67 miles of tunnels. These are the Hutchinson Salt Company, Underground Vaults and Storage and the Kansas Underground Salt Museum. KUSM has hosted over 150,000 visitors from all over the world since it opened in spring 2007. Today, salt continues to define Hutchinson as a true Salt City!
