#Adventures in Kansas July 17th: Strataca-Underground Salt Mine and Cosmosphere Space Museum

We spent two great weeks (July 11-24) in Pretty Prairie, Kansas! I can’t tell you how peaceful and beautiful it is there. I had more morning walks than any other location we’ve been to. Our host did a great job in making perfect trails to enjoy nature!

Strataca – Underground Salt Mine on July 17th. It was 650 feet underground, salt bed was deposited between 299 and 251 million years ago and very interesting. The air and temperature in the mine are perfect for people with allergies and they store a lot of historical documents and a movie company stores archival material like movie reels, props and costumes. As you’ll see, items don’t deteriorate in the mine, like above ground AND no bugs at all!

They re-use everything in the mine. They took up these railroad ties to use in another location.
Evidence of a fire in the mine – scary! The soot was very thick on the walls and above our heads.
This whole section – what they call a room – has tens of thousands of $ worth of salt that can’t be processed. They didn’t know they were excavating where they didn’t have mineral rights – above. Our guide says they don’t make that mistake anymore.
Sandwich from the 1950’s! This is an area where waste was left from workers. Close to here are steps that have not been disturbed since BEFORE we went to the moon!
Worn by George Clooney. 🙂
Newspaper from day after Lincoln was assassinated.
These were just for show – I’m sure they wouldn’t let people get that close to the real deal, and not behind an enclosure!

COSMOSPHERE Space Museum – also visited on July 17th. They have the Mercury capsule, Liberty Bell 7 (launched in 1961 and not recovered in the Atlantic Ocean until 1999), an SR71 spy plane (learned a lot of interesting facts about that plane) and a flown Apollo 13 command module, Odyssey. They have a planetarium, a digital dome theater, Dr. Goddard’s Lab (which gives you history of rockets and how they work) and a flight simulator.

LIberty Bell 7 piloted by Gus Grissom in 1961
Replica of Memorial wall in Florida – I remember this day when the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster happened. I was watching in High School on a tv they rolled into the room. One of those moments you’ll remember forever.

Next post – my First Real Rodeo!