Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1901 — A Disappearing Town. [ARTICLE]

A Disappearing Town.

Northwich, the center of the salt industry of Great Britain, is one of the queerest towns in the world. The whole underlying country is simply one mass of salt. The mining of the salt constitutes the staple industry of the district and from Northwich alone 1,200,000 tons of salt are shipped annually. When the industry was started it. was considered that only one stratum of salt existed and that was only a few feet below the surface. Fresh water found its way to this extensive salt deposit, with the result that the salt dissolved like snow. A huge subterranean lake of water, charged with 25 p~r cent of salt, was thus formed. Pumping engines were installed to convey this brine to the surface to large evaporating pans. The result of this extensive pumping is that Northwich now rests, as it were, upon a shell of earth, which at times proves insufficient to support the weight of the town with the consequence that the building are constantly collapsing in every direction.