Underground Kansas
What’s in hiding
Bats stop by caves to rest, even to mate, while movie stars never grow old — their best performances preserved for the ages, thanks to pristine conditions in underground vaults. Visit some of Underground Kansas’ least-accessible areas.
Look inside: Bat caves
Visiting caves beneath Barber and Comanche counties requires a few things up front: a landowner's invitation, a tolerance for off-road conditions, and sufficient local knowledge — plus enough confidence — to find the caves' entrances in places where wireless signals don't reach. So take the easy route — just click around this site instead.
See for yourself: Inside the bat chamber
This cave, located on private property along the Kansas-Oklahoma border, rarely accommodates human visitors, other than experienced naturalists and spelunkers. But bats are another story.
Underground Vaults & Storage
Underground Vaults & Storage isn't your normal warehouse. It's 650 underground, buried beneath the layers of shale and salt that make up the foundation of Hutchinson. The storage area occupies used-up sections of the Hutchinson Salt Co. mine. The storage operation started in 1959, and is valued for its high degree of security — just getting down there requires a ride in a secure elevator — and consistent atmospheric conditions.
Episodes of "Friends" are among the master negatives stored at Underground Vaults and Storage in Hutchinson.
Merrihew bat cave
Stan Roth gives a tour of the Merrihew cave, which is along the Kansas-Oklahoma border and often serves as a roost and "maternity site" for thousands of Brazilian free-tailed bats, a species he's been tracking for decades.
Look inside: Underground Vaults & Storage
Charlton Heston, Jennifer Aniston and Judge Wapner all share a room in the most unlikely of places: hundreds of feet below the surface of Hutchinson. The icons of screens big and small endure on master negatives kept in the climate-controlled comfort of Underground Vaults & Storage, tucked away inside a former salt mine.
Lee Spence: Preserve and protect
Lee Spence, president and chief executive officer of Underground Vaults & Storage in Hutchinson, illuminates one of his company's 15,000-square-foot storage vaults inside a former salt mine.
- Unusual items find home underground March 8, 2009





Comments
LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.
merrill (anonymous) says…
A trip through the Salt Mine Museum is awesome. Yep there is a gift shop way beneath the surface in this museum. This place is used to store films and "important" documents forever. An excellent field trip.
We and another family made a two day venture of this field trip which included the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center
and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills.
mmiller (anonymous) says…
This is so cool. I want to see this!!
jayhawklawrence (anonymous) says…
Great story!
Thinking_Out_Loud (anonymous) says…
I recommend the Underground Salt Mine Museum. It's fun, it's interesting, and it's worth every penny of admission.
lounger (anonymous) says…
Nice!
AnnaUndercover (Anna Undercover) says…
I just found this. I am so going.