Kansas Underground Salt Museum is receiving $25,000 in grants from Shell Oil Company. The funds will support interactive geology exhibits to be designed in three separate phases. The first phase will begin early in 2014.
The first $5,000 is being used to design Phase I of an interactive geology exhibit that will focus on the strata passed through by the hoist on its descent to the salt museum and beyond. It will include the core sample harvested when the new shaft was dug in 2004. Reflective Group from Baldwin City, Kansas, is designing and constructing the software needed for this part of the exhibit.
Phase II will include $10,000 for design of a major geology exhibit in the Stratadome (Great Room). After an interview process this summer, Split Rock Studios in St. Paul, Minnesota, was selected to design the exhibit. They will visit the museum in early December to tour and begin the idea and design phase of the project.
Once the design is complete, an additional $10,000 from Shell will kick off construction of the new exhibit that will be completed in stages. The exhibit will be built incrementally and will be designed to present a comprehensive, exciting and interactive experience addressing all aspects of the museums unique geology. Topics will include: How and when the salt was formed, Continental drift, the Permian period and sea, Kansas geology in this area, and many other important topics.