Salt places to visit · Hutchinson, Kansas
Strataca: Kansas Underground Salt Museum
Ride an elevator 650 feet down into a working salt mine, the only US salt mine open to tourists.
At a glance
| Where | Reno County, Hutchinson, Kansas |
|---|---|
| Type of place | Underground museum |
| What you'll see | Salt walls, mining equipment, items miners left behind as far back as the 1920s, and props from films stored in the mine. |
| How deep | About 650 feet (200 metres) below the surface, in salt laid down about 275 million years ago. |
| Tours | Guided rides include a train ride, a “Dark Ride,” and the hour-long Salt Safari into another part of the mine. |
| Still working | The Hutchinson Salt Company still mines rock salt in other parts of the mine, mostly for roads and livestock. |
Plan your visit: official information
The salt story
The Hutchinson mine opened in 1923 as the Carey Salt Company. It is mined room-and-pillar style, leaving 40-foot (12 m) pillars of salt to hold up the roof, and its rooms would stretch about 150 miles (240 km) if laid end to end. There are other salt mines in the United States, but Strataca is the only one tourists can enter.
Hours, seasons and prices change. Check with the site before you travel.
More salt places
Cite this page
For school projects and reports. Teachers often prefer the original sources too: see the list below.
The Salt Almanac. (2026, November 8). Strataca: Kansas underground salt museum. https://saltalmanac.com/places/strataca-kansas
“Strataca: Kansas Underground Salt Museum | Salt Places to Visit.” The Salt Almanac, 8 Nov. 2026, saltalmanac.com/places/strataca-kansas. Accessed [today's date].
“Strataca: Kansas Underground Salt Museum | Salt Places to Visit.” The Salt Almanac. Last modified November 8, 2026. https://saltalmanac.com/places/strataca-kansas.
Original sources
- Wikipedia. Strataca. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strataca
- KMUW. Echoes and old trinkets: Hutchinson's salt mines still have treasures for people to find (2023). https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/hidden-kansas/2023-07-28/echoes-and-old-trinkets-hutchinsons-salt-mines-still-has-treasures-for-people-to-find