Strataca
Salt Mine · Hutchinson, Kansas
A museum six hundred and fifty feet underground in a working salt mine at Hutchinson, in a bed laid down when a shallow sea evaporated around two hundred and seventy-five million years ago. You go down in the mine's own double-decker hoist, in the dark, and come out into galleries cut from salt where the air is bone dry and the temperature never changes. Part of the same mine is a commercial storage vault holding original Hollywood film negatives, because nothing underground ever degrades.
3650 East Avenue G, Hutchinson, Kansas, 67501, United States
Open most days, generally 9 AM - 5 PM with reduced Sunday and winter hours; closed on major holidays and occasionally for mine operations. Descent is by timed hoist with finite capacity and summer weekends fill. CLOSED-TOE SHOES REQUIRED. Age and height minimums apply — check before travelling with small children.