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$18 value! Offer good February 4-12, 2012. 

Staff and visitors who were underground on Saturday night were not even aware that households in the Hutchinson area were feeling rumblings from the Oklahoma earthquake.

The salt museum manager on duty in the topside Visitor Center noticed that the ticket windows rattled, in much the same manner as when the front doors are opened during  strong winds outside. Still, absolutely nothing was noticed underground. 

When asked, we have always reassured visitors that an earthquake would not affect the mine, for a number of reasons. Now we can say that indeed nothing moved.

Named one of Time magazine’s Top 25 Blogs of 2011, The Everywhereist is not your average travel blog.

When Geraldine was laid off from her job as a copywriter, she decided to join her husband on his frequent business trips and blog about their travels. This is more than a travel blog, however. It is snarky, clever, yes – somewhat informative, but mostly just flat out entertaining.

The Everywhereist recently visited Kansas and The Kansas Underground Salt Museum. She “had a blast.” Here is a taste of what she had to say:

“Consequently we were told, rather repeatedly and to my sheer delight, not to lick the walls. Which is a pity, because now I’ll never learn if the snozzberries taste like snozzberries.”

“Thanks to the high ceilings, the lighting, and the inherent goofiness that is Jason, I was actually having fun. I, the woman who is still kinda-sorta afraid of the basement, was 65 stories below ground and was having a delightful time.”

There was so much to say, Geraldine had to split her experience up into two blog posts. Click the links below to read them. You won’t be sorry.

Part 1

Part 2

Gayle and I attended the TIAK conference last week in Lawrence.  TIAK stands for Travel Industry Association of Kansas and understandably most of the attendees were those who work in the tourism industry in Kansas, particularly Convention and Visitor Bureau employees and museum and attraction folks like us. The conference was held at the new Oread Hotel which is beautiful inside and out. It kind of reminded me of the salt mine because it is filled with limestone hallways. (Of course it's a lot brighter inside than the mine.) Last year at the conference, Gayle and I had an "Aha" moment at one of the workshops that inspired us to totally change our underground tour, so we went expecting to receive new insights and great ideas. I can honestly say that we weren't disappointed. Picture a huge chandelier in the underground event center!  Imagine actually talking to Ben Blanchard at the end of the narrows!  These are just two of many inspirations that may or may not occur because of this conference. One speaker that was particularly great was Aaron Davis, former member of the 1990 National Champion Nebraska Football team and now an inspirational speaker.

A huge highlight was when the Salt Museum and the Cosmosphere won the marketing award for the best co-op advertising campaign for the joint ticket in the $5,000 plus category.  Even better was when we then also won the overall Co-op marketing award for all categories. A recurring theme at the conference, voiced by Governor Brownback, Secretary of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, Robin Jennison and many speakers was that collaboration, not competition is the wave of the future in marketing. One phrase that we heard over and over was "A high tide lifts all boats."  We are proud to be on the cutting edge of marketing in collaboration with another one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas,  the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.