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There used to be tours of the Detroit Salt Mines, and indeed the Detroit Salt Company is still alive today.

Near the "Uniroyal Giant Tire" [1] off of I-94 is a small tunnel that goes under the freeway. Not the same as these, but, well, as interesting as the freeway tunnel I suppose.

[1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Uniroyal+Tire/@42.2714...

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Wow, I live five minutes from that tire. Since I was young I've passed it a million times on the freeway and also checked out the service enterence for it but it was all gated off.

Any more details on the tunnel?

My dad had some big chunks of salt from touring that mine. And I still remember the tire.

There were also a lot of brine wells south of Detroit, where they mined salt by forcing hot water down into a hole and bringing up the brine.

And then evaporated the brine? Or what was it used for?

Making lye and chlorine by the chlor-alkalai process. So they didn't need dry salt.

Diamond Salt is still made this way north of Detroit. Almost all restaurant salt in the United States is sourced here.

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