Himrod and Watkins Salt Mines

[lvrr325]

Passed by here this morning, but didn't have time to explore. Got held up by a payloader on it's way down to the worksite. Looked like a large warehouse on the south end still standing from what I could see.

Thought I saw a headlight down in the FLGK yard, too.

[lvrr325]

Went back today and was able to see better; they're working at the north end of the property right now, anything on the west side of the lot is gone. Stuff by the road apparently will come later. Passed Finger Lakes on the way down, wished I could have chased him down the Corning; NS power was laying over in Dresden too.

[poppyl]

Interesting info on the layover at Dresden. Did you get a good enough look to id the equipment? NS usually doesn't send traffic up through there during the daytime. The interchange traffic normally comes through northbound in the early evening with a return around 2 AM. The Dresden coal drag comes north around 11 PM with empties going south around 4 AM. I'm wondering if the coal drag crew expired before they could get back to Gang Mills with the empties.

[lvrr325]

Two NS six axle units, one in CR blue. Could have been a third out of my sight as well. Were north of the tracks into the plant by half a mile or so. Just happened to be looking the right way from 14 while passing by - I presumed they were laying over because we'd just passed Finger Lakes going south and I assumed he had the track all the way to Himrod. Hoppers were apparent at the end of the lead into the plant, too.

[poppyl]

Thanks. The CR unit has been a constant on the coal drag for some time. The more I think about it, the more I think that the northbound drag got a "late" start out of Corning causing the turnaround to have to hold until the FLK traffic cleared Himrod. While there isn't much traffic on the secondary, the distances (and no passing sidings) involved have got to factor into the scheduling between NS and FLK.

[Sandy]

Anyone been down near the Morton salt Mine, what was scheduled to be tore down is just about
finished. The local fire chief was told that nothing else is planned to be torn down at this point
from Morton Salt officials from Silver Springs, the ones responsible for oversight of that property if
that's what you want to call it.

[Sandy]

Traveled down by the Morton mine this afternoon, Mill building and rail station is gone, heard a little bit
of intersting info, a local realator has been contacted by Morton to inquire if property bordering the
salt plant comes up for sale, they would be interested, no other info was available as the realator could
not say any more. One thing is also interesting, a roofing contractor has been seen down ther and looked
at all of the buildings roofs. Whats up with that.

[locnut]

It was brought up on what happened to the waste salt that was above ground. Well a company came in from Texas and drilled three wells. one behind the church in Himrod. well 2 was locate on Servern road across from what used to be Kuhnle Brothers Trucking. Well 3 was located between the ranch house and the himrod turn off. If memory serves me right they were down about 1300 feet where there was reported a cavern.
Water was pumped up from servern point and sprayed on the pile to dissolve it. They then pumped it back underground.
I worked for Kuhnle Trucking and we started hauling loads from the mine in 1971 and we took some of the last salt when it closed in 1977.

[jayenelee]

It was brought up on what happened to the waste salt that was above ground. Well a company came in from Texas and drilled three wells. one behind the church in Himrod. well 2 was locate on Servern road across from what used to be Kuhnle Brothers Trucking. Well 3 was located between the ranch house and the himrod turn off. If memory serves me right they were down about 1300 feet where there was reported a cavern.
Water was pumped up from servern point and sprayed on the pile to dissolve it. They then pumped it back underground.
I worked for Kuhnle Trucking and we started hauling loads from the mine in 1971 and we took some of the last salt when it closed in 1977.

Does Woodtex products occupy the Kuhnle Trucking property now?

[Sandy]

A lot of the locals said all of the waste salt water and brine water from the dissolved piles was pumped back
into the mine shafts. I have seen the well behind the church. That makes sense since i could not believe that
Morton would of flooded the mine shafts thus leaving the shafts useless. I seen yesterday that the construction
company sealed up the conveyor shaft that entered the mill building from the large tower that the salt entered
from the mine. Kinda sad.

[Sandy]

Has anyone been down by the Himrod Salt Mine, not sure what has been going on, can anyone feed me some info.

Thanks

[Sandy]

Has anybody been down by the Morton Salt Mine lately in Himrod, NY, alot of activity has been going on by the Morton officials, could something be in the works?

[poppyl]

Sandy;

If you could, please expand on what you mean by "a lot of activities going on by Morton officials". Seems strange since almost all structures have been removed. The only "action" that I've heard about is the transfer of site ownership back to the parent corporation from the LLC formed when the mine was opened. I suspect that this was a legal formality, perhaps to help with the sale of the property at some future time and to wind down the LLC. Unless you are aware of something else, I don't see any reason for optimism at this point, particularly in the short term.

Poppyl

[scharnhorst]

I wonder if something like this mine could be turned into a museum to show people what salt mineing is or was like in the area?

[Sandy]

Driving down by the old plant on Friday, there was a number of vehicles that were parked in the parking lot in the plant, It
struck me kind of odd so i turned my vehicle around and observed what was going on from a distance at the Finger Lakes rail station. I counted six people, four of which were wearing hard helmets, they were where the old power plant was located
and appeared to be measuring the distance from the high tension electric lines are to where the former sub station where the underground utilities use to enter the plant. I then observed them measuring the distance to the large headframe from where the utility entrance was. Two other vehicles also stopped and observed with me on what was going on, it was quite a conversation we had there. I did notice that there was activity behind the warehouse last fall with large equipment behind the Himrod church where they cleaned the area where the underground storage of brine water was deposited underground. I asked a member of the local fire department what might be going on as they(the fire department) does training at the grounds of the salt plant, his statement was "no comment, you'll just have to wait and see for youself" kind of odd, ain't it.
Would be nice if they did some type of mining ther in the future as long as they don't contaminate it again like they did years ago. It was stated that they would most likely never sell that property due to the liability that lies underground underneath the property, which is the shafts, do you have any insight on this poppyl?