Taken from the “Kanopolis Centennial 1887-1987,” a special insert in the July 9, 1987, edition of The Ellsworth Reporter. The article about the salt mines was taken from “A History of Ellsworth County” written by Francis L. Wilson.

Salt saved the day! Three mines once worked Kanopolis’ rich salt vein.

In 1890 when the dream of making Kanopolis into the capital and chief metropolis of Kansas had faded, the Kanopolis Land Co. made one last gallant effort to find riches, there this time under the ground.

A thick vein of salt had been found at Ellsworth and at Kanopolis and was believed to extend as far as Little River. J.S. Crowell of Cincinnati, head of the Crowell Publishing Co. and one of the Ohio millionaires who controlled the Kanopolis Land Co., knew of a Scotch engineer in England who had built several mines. He persuaded James Cowie to bring his family, come to this country and sink the shaft for the first Kanopolis salt mine. The project, almost as grandiose as the original promotion of the town, got off to a bad start before Cowie ever reached Kanopolis.

Through some mix-up, tickets sent to England were for Geneseo and the Missouri Pacific rather than for Kanopolis. The Cowies arrived in Geneseo and had to wait there a week until the Missouri Pacific could accumulate enough freight to guarantee a trip up the line that had been built to Kanopolis.

Once there, Cowie set to work immediately. The shaft of the Royal Salt mine was dug first and Italian and Greek miners and their families were brought in and began mining salt in the spring of 1890. The Crystal shaft was later engineered, also by Mr. Cowie, and many years later, in 1914, his son D.B. Cowie conceived the idea of interesting the major meat packers in securing a “captive” supply of salt. He succeeded in getting Swift and Armour interested to the extent they agreed to each put up $50,000 if he could prove the salt was available at a reasonable depth. He returned to Kanopolis, succeeded in getting the late C.A. Andrews to agree to finance a test hole in exchange for an agreement that it be drilled on Andrew’s land and that future acquisitions be on his land at a price of $100 an acre. Thus, in 1914, the Independent Salt mine was born, the only one of three remaining in operation. This time Mexican workers were imported to do much of the labor.

These people and the Italian and Greek miners who were still at Kanopolis lived in company houses at the mine. A few who lived in town walked to and from work, following the railroad right-of-way.

The salt was mined from an 850-foot level with men equipped with carbide lamps on their caps doing the digging with pick and shovel.

Later, as the lateral was extended, mine cars and mules to pull them were introduced. Countless mules lived their entire lives underground without sunlight during their adult lives.

Actual operation of this mine began in 1915 and by 1946, the mine had been completely modernized with mechanical equipment doing all the digging and hauling. Even the cage was done away with and men, salt and equipment were raised and lowered by a succession of small buckets.

Salt was one of the necessities of life that was scarce on the frontier, and as vast herds of cattle appeared on the plains, rock was even more in demand. Altogether six mines were started in Ellsworth County, only the Independent Salt mine remains.

Ellsworth had an evaporative plant just west of the old power plant. A salt mine was started north of town by the shaft but encountered a strong flow of underground water and excavation machinery was never recovered from the abandoned hole.

Dan (D.B.) Cowie and others raised the money for a mine across the river in the south part of Ellsworth. They did not get a very enthusiastic reception and Cowie then started the promotion that led to the sinking of the Independent mine at Kanopolis.

Ellsworth had still another chance for a mine. It is ironic that in 1887 when a strong showing of natural gas was found north of town, Ellsworth was more excited about the prospect of a salt plant. In 1913, a salt plant at Kingman burned and the owners proposed to move to Ellsworth and this time Ellsworth was more interested in natural gas. In July, the Ellsworth Gas Co. was formed, and in 1914 a gas well was brought in, but water flooded the well and the project was abandoned.

When the Independent shaft was sunk, Kanopolis had three mines, all dug by Cowie and all the buildings designed and built under the direction of a German millwright whose name has been lost but whose design was never changed or improved upon.

Many names connected with the Kanopolis mines need to be remembered: George P. Kelly, right hand man to the Cowies who went to Little River and then to Lyons to operate salt plants; William Veatch, superintendent of the Crystal mine for years; William Jewell and Carlos Quartaro and many others who were foremen or worked in the mines 30 or 40 years.

Then, history should record the name of Duane Hunt, who took over as superintendent of the Independent operation in 1944 and modernized that mine so that it did not go the way of the Royal and Crystal. Today, it is a marvel of mechanized efficiency.

The Royal became involved in litigation over soil pollution from the huge dump of salt refuse and the Crystal, as well as the Royal, were victims of manipulation by eastern capital. Once the effects of water and salt on timbers was allowed to gain headway, the shafts began caving in. At one time, the shaft of the Crystal was filled with hay in an effort to halt a cave-in.

The Cowie family not only sank the shafts and headed the operation of all three Kanopolis mines, but at one time, D.B. Cowie owned practically all of Kanopolis. The failure of the Kanopolis bank was the crowning blow to failing family fortunes and today, only one member of the family still lives in the county.

It should be noted in passing that Wilson also had a salt mine, but this venture was short-lived.

The Indians and earliest settlers obtained their salt from salt marshes and salt springs and fought over possession of them, then, by 1890, there were 23 salt plants in Kansas. Today, the Independent is one of the few not abandoned or used for storage of valuable papers or atomic waste.

The historic items on this page appear as they did in the original publication.