Water Hit Morton's Mine Under Lake Erie. The Machines Stayed

Water got into Morton's salt mine 2,000 feet under Lake Erie on October 22, 2026. The miners got out. The machines, lowered in pieces, are still down there. Verified heavy-equipment and infrastructure history, checked against the records. New documentary every other day, subscribe here: 👉 Machinery Vault:    / @machinery-vault   Every big machine in the Morton Salt mine near Fairport Harbor, Ohio, had to be taken apart up top and rebuilt at the bottom of a 2,000-foot shaft. On October 22, crews found a significant inflow of water, everyone was evacuated, and a federal order shut the mine. We pulled the official record (the federal mine page still lists the former owner, K+S, more than five years after the sale), followed the machines down the shaft, and asked what water does to the salt pillars that hold up the roof. Then we checked what two other American salt mines lost when water got in: Retsof, New York, in 1994, and Lake Peigneur, Louisiana, in 1980. As of early November, the source of the water has not been determined and Morton has not said whether the mine will reopen. More from Machinery Vault: ⛏️ 165 Million Tons Buried Every Truck in the Deepest Mine (2013):    • 165 Million Tons Buried Every Truck in the...   🏗️ The 1,800-Ton Machine That Dug a Buried Mine Back Out - Bingham Canyon (2013):    • The 1,800-Ton Machine That Dug a Buried Mi...   🚢 If the Soo Locks Fail, Does America Really Lose $1 Trillion?:    • If the Soo Locks Fail, Does America Really...   📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 Water hits the mine, and what the federal record shows 03:12 How a machine gets 2,000 feet under Lake Erie 06:03 Why water is the problem in a salt mine 07:59 What Retsof and Lake Peigneur lost 12:17 What's still down there, and what decides if it comes back up SOURCES Morton Salt, Morton Salt Ceases Operations at Fairport Mine (PR Newswire): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea... MSHA, Morton Salt Fairport Mine: https://www.msha.gov/data-reports/sta... K+S, sale of Americas salt business closed: https://www.kpluss.com/en-us/newsroom... Morton Salt, Salt Production and Processing: https://www.mortonsalt.com/article/sa... Ohio Cooperative Living, An old salt: https://www.ohiocoopliving.com/old-salt Scholastic Science World, A Secret Salt Mine: https://scienceworld.scholastic.com/i... WKYC, Morton Salt layoffs and mine shutdown: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/loc... FOX 8, Morton Salt mine remains closed: https://fox8.com/news/morton-salt-min... News 5 Cleveland, Morton Salt to lay off 77 workers: https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/m... USGS Circular 1182, The Retsof Salt Mine Collapse: https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1182/p... USGS Professional Paper 1611: https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1611 UPI Archives, Lake Peigneur settlement (1983): https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/07/... American Physical Society, Historic Site Morton Salt Mine: https://www.aps.org/funding-recogniti... #LakeErie #MortonSalt #SaltMine #Ohio #mining #heavyequipment #engineering #machinery #disaster #history