The Windsor Salt Mine currently operates two locations in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The first is the Ojibway Mine at 200 Morton Drive in Windsor, established in 1955, and is owned by The

Canadian Salt Company Windsor Salt is a national salt mining, processing, and distribution company based in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada. It operates salt mines in Pugwash, Nova Scotia (the Windsor Salt Pugwash Mine) and Windsor, Ontario (the Windsor salt mine). From ...

, Limited. The facility has 250 employees, earns roughly $75–99 million a year, producing road and mining salt.Scott's Directories, 2007 Manufacturer 50th Anniversary Edition (2007, Toronto, Division Big Directories) pg 2-876 The second location is the Windsor Facility of the Canadian Salt Company, located at 30 Prospect Ave. in Windsor. This facility employs 110 and estimates their sales at $25–50 million a year. It was established much earlier than the first, in 1893. Its main products are

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

used for human consumption,

water softening Water softening is the removal of calcium, magnesium, and certain other metal cations in hard water. The resulting soft water requires less soap for the same cleaning effort, as soap is not wasted bonding with calcium ions. Soft water also exten ...

and

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

. In 2008, Canadian Salt mined approximately 9.5 megatonnes from the Windsor mine, 85% of which went to deicing highways, and the remainder for manufacturing

caustic soda Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions . Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and alkali ...

and

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...

, producing pulp and paper, and water treatment.

History

In the early days of Canada's European settlement, trappers brought shiploads of salt with them for personal uses such as curing hides and salting meat, as well as trading with the

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

peoples. In 1860, the Saginaw Salt and Lumber Company began mining salt in nearby

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. It produced salt in limited amounts, as its main industry was lumber. In approximately 1890, William Van Horne, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), realized the potential of the region. The company sunk a test well on CPR's land in Windsor and found salt in 1891. The test well was supervised by E.G Henderson, the civil engineer who supervised the CPR's

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to Windsor Line. He would become the plant manager of The Windsor Salt Company Limited, which was built and operational in 1893. One reason for the CPR's interest in the Windsor Salt Mine is attributed to a desire to enable the company to haul freight in order to compete with other railroad companies such as the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rail ...

. From the beginning, Windsor's mine has been unique in Canada, using a

vacuum pan technique A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often dis ...

that is utilized in the U.S., but not elsewhere in Canada.

Financial Issues

The Windsor Salt Mine had a difficult start, with a financial crisis in 1897. By 1910, the Canadian Salt Company, as it was known as since 1901, prospered sufficiently to purchase the Saginaw Lumber and Salt Company. Shortly before 1928, The Canadian Salt Company moved its operation to Sandwich and shuttered its older plant. In 1928,

Canadian Industries Limited Canadian Industries Limited, also known as C-I-L, is a Canadian chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separat ...

purchased the mine and in 1941, Neepawa Salt Company in

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

merged with Canadian Industry Limited. Canadian Industry withdrew from salt manufacturing in 1951, and Windsor,

Neepawa Neepawa is a town in Manitoba, Canada located on the Yellowhead Highway at the intersection with Highway 5. its population was 5,685. Neepawa was incorporated as a town in 1883. It is bordered by the Municipality of North Cypress – Langford and ...

, and a mine in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

were incorporated by H.R. Milner under the name

. In 1952, the

Morton Salt Morton Salt is an American food company producing salt for food, water conditioning, industrial, agricultural, and road/highway use. Based in Chicago, the business is North America's leading producer and marketer of salt. It is a subsidiary of h ...

Company of Chicago purchased a large interest in the company and established a subsidiary, the Canadian Rock Salt Company. In 1954, Canadian Industries Limited left Windsor, leaving Morton and the Canadian Rock Salt Company in Windsor. In February 1954 a sinkhole appeared above the Prospect St. mine, leading to thousands of dollars worth of damage. This also led to the public fearing for its safety. The Windsor Mine engineers assured the public that the area was safe, and spent weeks cleaning up the mess. Fifty thousand yards of fill were needed.

Coordinates

*200 Morton Drive, Windsor, ON *30 Prospect Avenue, Windsor, ON

History

Financial Issues

Coordinates

See also

References

Further reading