THE 
AMERICAN GEOLOGIST 
Vol. V. FEBRUARY, 1890. No. 2. 
NOTES ON A KANSAS SALT MINE. 
By RoBT. Hay, F.G.S.A.. Junction City, Kan. 
The substance of a paper read at the Toronto meeting of the A. A. A. S., 1889. 
In 1886 and 1887 there was much speculative boring in 
Kansas. Rock gas and some oil having been found in the 
eastern counties of the state, the people of the middle and 
west tried their luck with the drill. In August, 1888, it was an- 
nounced that rock salt had been struck at Ellsworth, on the 
Smoky Hill river, west of the 98th meridian, and at Kingman, 
75 mil(9s south, just east of the same meridian. Which place 
struck it first is now a matter of dispute. At Kingman, Tri- 
assic 'redbeds' are on the surface, and the salt was found be- 
low them. At Ellsworth, the Dakotah formations are on top 
but the drill showed what had not been before suspected, that 
the redbeds there underlie the Dacotah. At several places be- 
tween these, and also further south and west, and one place east, 
the rock salt Avas found and is now being manufactured by the 
various methods of evaporation. 
At Kingman, however, through the indefatigable exertions 
of Mr. W. H. Child, a sliaft was commenced on the 2nd of 
April, 1888, with a view of mining the solid salt. The shaft 
is 8ft. 2in.x 4ft. 2in., inside the casing. Early in April, 1889, 
salt was reached in the shaft. The first bed was reached at a 
depth of 782 ft. This seam was two feet thick. Then followed 
shale with vertical and other irregular seams of salt from 1 to 
