The Detroit salt mine is a
salt mine located below
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
. The mine opened in 1910 and covers underground. In the beginning, the leather and food industries were the primary customers. Today, road
deicing
Deicing is the process of removing snow, ice or frost from a surface. Anti-icing is the application of chemicals that not only deice but also remain on a surface and continue to delay the reformation of ice for a certain period of time, or prev ...
salt is the primary product.
History
Rock salt was discovered in 1895. The Detroit Salt and Manufacturing Company was formed to extract the salt. The company went bankrupt before finishing the
shaft
Shaft may refer to:
Rotating machine elements
* Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power
* Line shaft, a power transmission system
* Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque
* Axle, a shaft around whi ...
down to the salt. A new company was formed and the shaft was completed in 1910.
A second larger shaft was completed in 1925. The first shaft was relegated to hauling workers and materials.
By the late 1950s, the company operated through both shafts, which are about 1100 feet deep. The mine was closed from 1983 to 1998, when production was restarted to produce road deicing salt.
In October 2010, the Detroit Salt Co., LLC, was acquired by the Kissner Group of Canada for an undisclosed price.
See also
*
Michigan Basin
The Michigan Basin is a geologic basin centered on the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The feature is represented by a nearly circular pattern of geologic sedimentary strata in the area with a nearly uniform structural dip towa ...
References
External links
Time magazine photo essay: Underground Economy: The Big Salt Mine in DetroitDetroit Salt Company
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Mines in Michigan
Buildings and structures in Detroit
Salt mines in the United States