Science Lesson #3: Geology - Salt Mine -Strattaca in Kansas

 Few salt mines allow the public to tour.  There's the Bavaria Mountains and Salt Mines tour in Salzburg, but when I visited Salzburg, I opted for the Mozart tour and The Sound of Music Tour.  Poland has the Wieliczka Salt Mine Tour and Pakistan's Khewra Salt Mines attracts approximately 250,000 visitors per year.  I'm not sure when I'll take my kids to Poland or Pakistan. 

After researching US tours, I found one place - Strattaca, located in Hutchinson, Kansas.  Thanks to the Reno County Historical Society and two companies, the Hutchinson Salt Company and Underground Vaults and Storage company, the Kansas Underground Salt Museum opened to the public in 2007.  It's the only working museum that exists in a working salt mine anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.  Voters named it one of the "Eight Wonders of Kansas" (2008).

Formed 275 million years ago when the Permian Sea dried up, it's one of the largest salt mines in the world and still mined today.  When you descend 650 feet below the prairie surface on an industrial elevator (and our group chose to keep the lights off - cool!!!), you walk out and see the vast space.  It's 300,000 square feet of mined out area.  Ceilings are 10 to 17 feet high.

 Kids read every sign in their geology exhibit, listened to short history videos, and checked out the equipment.  As Chicago residents (and people who need to get to work, no matter what the weather), we need to really appreciate this place - it's a source of the salt used to melt the ice and snow on our roads.  The museum fund raises to expand the exhibit. 

We bought the Blast Pass ($19 adult, children $12.50).  Besides admission, you get two tours:  1.  Dark Ride (30 minute tram tour explaining air flow and mine hazards), and 2.  Train Ride (15 min. Salt Mine Express shows the active areas of 1940s and 50s including the garbage that never disintegrated).  Kids tend to love hands on activities, so when the tour gave them a small bag and told them they had a few minutes to pick a piece of salt from a pile, they were excited to find their own souvenir.


The salt mine also serves as a secure storage facility, holding original Hollywood movies and many other documents.  An exhibit explains.

For a real treat, the museum offers special Scout and 4-H overnights.  Boy Scouts may earn their Geology and/or Mining in Society merit badge.

Gym Class #7: Lumberjack Competitions & 6 Shows

Take your kids on a verbal history trip before visiting a lumberjack show.  With all the cheering and jokes, they may miss the connection to our European ancestors settling America, logging, and building wood homes.  Logging camps set up in the north.  Log drivers rode and drove the logs down the strong river currents from the forest to the sawmills.  When the spring thaw came, logs rafted downriver.  Wisconsin turned out 3.4 billion board feet of pinewood by the end of the 19th century.

No doubt your kids will have fun cheering on the lumberjacks at a lumber jack show. Most shows have multiple events such as the boom run, speed climb (competitors can reach 60 or 90 feet high in what seems like no time), chainsaw carve, crosscut sawing, and axe throw.  Multiple times I've seen these lumber artists carve a bunny chair right before the audience eyes and a lucky boy or girl goes home with a naturally cute chair.

The log roll always pleases the crowd.  Competitors stand atop a log, try to keep balance, can't cross the center line, and try to stay on the log longer than their opponent while spinning the log in water.

These shows focus on the families.  I find the lumberjacks to really enjoy kids asking for their autographs after the show.

Considering the logging history, it's not surprising that many of the shows locate in northern states.  In fact, the Lumberjack World Championships international competition takes place in Hayward, WI.  Shows can be seasonal, so plan ahead.  Here's six shows:

1.  Jack Pine Lumber Jack Shows - Mackinaw City, MI - June to September
Rated #1 attraction in Mackinaw City (TripAdvisor 2013), features nine-time World Champion logroller Dan McDonough, 1 hour show, $14 adult, $9 children

2.  Paul Bunyan's Northwoods Lumberjack Show - Wisconsin Dells, WI - May and June
adults $18, children $11

3.  Fred Scheers Lumberjack Show - Hayward and Minocqua, WI - May and June
1 hour show $14, children $9;

Hayward also hosts the World Championships and includes a Family Night deal ($40 entrance for 2 adults and up to 4 children) on Thurs. night of July 28-30 2016.

4.  Great Maine Lumberjack Show - Trenton, Maine - June to Aug.
12 events including power hot sawing and underhand chopping; adults $12, child $8

5.  The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show - Ketchikan, AK - May to Sept.
#1 in shore excursions for Alaska, voted Alaska's 10 Best by Travel Channel

Perhaps you have a hankering for a lumberjack show and it's off season, never fear, you can go to this year round show:

6.  Lumberjack Feud - Pigeon Forge, TN - year round
Show includes dinner, 19 events, ESPN athletes,  and World Champion Timberdogs. Adults $50, children $20

Most shows have relatively reasonable ticket prices.  If you really want to get a great deal, go to a county or state fair offering a free lumberjack show.  I've seen shows at the MN State Fair, Utah State Fair, and the IL State Fair (Timberworks Lumberjack Show featured in above photos, a traveling show, located within Conservation World on the fair grounds)