Salt Mine Museum

Oh, just so you know. Remember that whole disclaimer thing from last week? And the story I said would probably just make most of you mad, remember that? Sorry, I was just seeing if you were paying attention. One thing I knew for sure was that our editor does. As usual, I called her Wednesday afternoon and the first thing she said was, okay, what are you going to write about next week? I guess I like to keep her guessing. Denise, thank you for putting up with me.
I’m glad to see Chief Miller coming out with his side of the helicopter issue. I just wish he’d done it sooner. Who knows, maybe this whole mess could have been avoided.
None of that matters now, does it? District Attorney, Robert Hecht is taking the City to court to nullify the whole thing. A judge will decide who‘s who and what‘s what. You’d think that’d settle it, wouldn’t you? Not in Topeka. No way. This will just be another way for us to rail about the city, the county, the state, and even the feds. Yeah, we just love having something to be mad about.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Hutchinson this winter. I like the place. There, people don’t seem so mad all the time. Don’t get me wrong, they have their problems. But there doesn’t seem to be the same tensions we thrive on in Topeka. I was there during the ice storm that shut down most of the state. Most of the city was without power for about a week. Parts of town were without power for as long as two or three weeks. Trees took a major hit all over town. What was it, maybe 10 weeks ago? They’re still cleaning up limbs.
The City agreed to pick up the branches as long as property owners would cut and stacked them along the curbs. Eventually the City was forced to admit they were overwhelmed and asked the public for help. They asked anyone who was able and had a chainsaw or a truck to join in and help each other. The thing I noticed through it all was the fact that local media actually supported the city. Local radio, television, and even the paper, The Hutchinson News called on people to help out. Was everybody happy? No. It was a lot of hard work, but they managed to get through it. There were a few letters to the editor from people who were mad. But it never got to the point of demanding that someone resign. And I don’t think anyone suggested boycotting someone’s business because they served on the city council. They came together as a community and worked through a tough situation.
They did have quite a fight about the city wanting to extend a sales tax to help subsidize the Salt Mine Museum. Again, local media led the way in support of the City’s efforts to make this treasure work. They eventually passed it and the museum was given new life.
Actually, the salt mine is what I wanted to talk about today anyway. I took a tour of the place on my last trip to Hutch. It’s one of the coolest places I’ve seen in a long time. They load you on an elevator and when the doors open you step into a huge room made up of pure salt. You’ll learn about the history of the mine. You’ll learn about how the salt was formed and how it was discovered in the first place. It boggled my mind when they started talking about the size of the underground salt they’re mining. It’s about 800 ft. thick, about 250 miles wide and stretches from somewhere in Missouri through Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and into Wyoming.
Because of the constant temperature of 68 degrees and very low humidity, it’s a perfect place to store almost anything. Warner Brothers stores most of their films there. They’ve set up a display including the some of the original costumes used in a few of their films. You’ll get the chance to see Batman’s costume. Because I’m a fan of the movie, The Matrix, I really enjoyed seeing Mr. Smith’s costume. You’ll see the original Frosty the Snowman. Another really cool thing you’ll see is a newspaper reporting the news of Abraham Lincoln’s death. It’s an original copy and the pages haven’t even yellowed. Yeah, really cool stuff.
As much as I enjoy my trips to Hutchinson, Topeka is home. I just wish we could take a few lessons from our neighbors to the west and work together for a change. Who knows, we might find out Topeka isn’t such a bad place after all.
Kevin McGinty can be reached at: kevinmcginty@sbcglobal.net