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
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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.