Venture Into a Surreal Salt Mine 2000 Feet Below Lake Erie
Each year, Cities throughout the US scatter 19.5 million tons of salt on icy, snowy roads. Few people give it any thought beyond complaining about the stuff turning their car into a rusty heap, or pause to wonder where it all comes from. A lot of that salt is mined in Ohio, pulled from the remains of massive inland sea that dried up more than 400 million years ago.
This vast deposit lies 2,000 feet below Lake Erie. Enormous machines drill into great veins of halite, extracting huge chunks that other enormous machines crush into bucketloads of salt that ascend on conveyors. It is a strange world of long tunnels and cavernous spaces illuminated by headlamps and floodlights. “It’s so beautiful,” says photographer Ricky Rhodes. “It’s an industrial process, so most people don’t think of it that way. But it’s a beautiful thing most people don’t get to see.”
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