Six hundred and fifty feet beneath the Kansas prairie, in chambers carved from 275-million-year-old salt deposits, lies one of America’s most unusual economic foundations. The Hutchinson Salt Company mine, operating since 1923, represents just one facet of what economists have identified as the nation’s 11th most diverse county economy. Reno County’s 61,700 residents live atop geological treasures that have shaped both their industrial heritage and economic resilience. “I would say as far as tourism type deals go, we’ve got Strataca, the Salt Mine Museum, the only one in the United States that you could actually enter and go into,” explains Commissioner Don Bogner, Chairman of the Reno County, Kansas Board of County Commissioners. While there are 15 salt mines operating across the United S SALT MINES BUILT ST DIVERSE ECONOMY FROM 650 FEET BENEATH THE PRAIRIE TO BILLION-DOLLAR POWER PLANTS, RENO COUNTY PROVES THAT ECONOMIC RESILIENCE COMES FROM THE MOST UNEXPECTED PLACES. 54 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 09
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