North America has a large salt production. Most productive mines have waterways nearby to aid in transporting it. However, the main salt mines are in New York, Kansas, and Michigan. Additional zones occur in the southern United States from Alabama to Texas and along the western coast. Morton is a well-known producer of salt. Companies produce salt in three ways: rock, evaporation, and solar.
Morton Salt produces their salt all three ways making pure salt in ponds, working underground as in the other mines, and using steam to evaporate the salt brine. Morton Salt has twenty locations across North America. They have mines in Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Utah, Arizona, Kansas, California, and Michigan, New Jersey, Florida, New York, Minnesota and Louisiana. In Canada, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario have production sites. In the Bahamas, they even produce salt.
The New York salt mines encompass a huge area stretching from Madison County to Lake Erie in Michigan to Ontario, Canada and back to Pennsylvania known as the Finger Lakes mine. With the construction of The Erie Canal, the entire country could receive salt, after the War of 1812. This was when commercial salt production began. The Orondaga County Parks created a museum that shows the history of this salt mine. The four operating salt mines are American Rock Salt in Mt. Morris, Cargill Salt in Lansing and Watkins Glen, Retsof Mine and also US Salt also in that town.
Few people know about The Detroit Salt mine. It lies underground as most do. It has a long history, going all the way back to the time when Indian tribes used the salt mine. In the early days of the mine, six men died while working. The Detroit Salt and Mining Company built a shaft in 1910. Workers and animals rode ropes down to the work site. In 1922, they made another shaft. Workers take an elevator down to reach the mine, many stories below the surface. Today, the company sells salt from this mine for road salt only.
North American Salt and Compass Minerals is the largest global rock salt mine. It is in Goderich, Ontario, Canada. North America mines all kinds of salt from agricultural to industrial salts. It has its headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas.
Salt mines throughout North American are large and produce much capital for companies as everyone uses salt, and it is an important industry for the United States government.
