Name/Title
S16.04.156Description
The Sam Laud Great Lakes self-loading bulk cargo carrier ship owned by the American Steamship Company being loaded with salt at the International Salt Company's operation on Whiskey Island Peninsula at Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The International Salt Company mines the rock-salt underground. Ohio's rock-salt deposits are confined to the Salina Group of the Silurian Geologic Period. The F unit of the Salina Group is the principal salt-bearing unit in Ohio and is further subdivided into four units. The F2 unit is mined by the International Salt Company at the Cleveland Mine. The underground mine is operated on a room and pillar system that leaves central pillars of salt to hold up the structure. The image was made in 1995.
REVIEW
For more information about the history of the Ohio's salt industry, see: Ohio's Salt Industry by Michael C. Hansen (Ohio Geological Survey, Ohio Geology Newsletter, Fall 1983) page 1+.
Information comes from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History Online articles on Rock Salt, International Salt Company and Whiskey Island: International Salt changed its name to Akzo Salt after being acquired by Akzo N.V. in 1968 and later operated as Akzo Nobel Salt after Akzo N.V. became a business unit of Nobel Industries in 1994.
The following information is from the Port of Cleveland Newsletter article Along the Water from April 2013. International Salt opened this underground mine site in 1963. Cargill Deicing Technology has owned and operated the mine since 1997. The mine is 1,800 feet below Lake Erie. It is operated on a room and pillar system that leaves central pillars of salt to hold up the structure. Rooms are 40 by 40 feet in size. Cargill Deicing Technology is a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Cargill International, the world’s largest privately held company. Cargill’s salt operations are headquartered in Cleveland, with 80 employees at its North Olmsted offices and 200 at the Cleveland mine.
This slide image included in the USGS National Digital Catalog for NGGDPP Grant G15AP00115 in FY2015.Context
Steamboat ship being loaded with salt; lake and the rest of the facility reside in the foreground. International Salt Company's operation in Cleveland, Ohio.