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On the Campaign Trail with Hillary and Katie as they visit Sweetwater County

November 4, 2006- FMC Underground Mine Tour

Today we toured the FMC mine in Sweetwater County. It was so cool! We were also very happy because Bret (our brother) was in town for the election and was able to join. It is the largest underground mine in the world! It is fifteen hundred feet underground and extends under both I-80 and Little America. FMC is a trona mine and a new mining technology called the long wall miner virtually doubled the life of the mine. FMC opened in 1948 and will be open far into the future. Trona is processed into soda ash, which is the main ingredient in baking soda, glass, and many other products.

Before our journey underground we had to get all geared up and have a short safety lesson. We wore steel toed-boots, overalls, goggles, hard hats (with head lamps), a battery pack, a self rescuer, a belt, and ear plugs during certain times of the tour. Of course we were all quite the fashion statements! After we got geared up we got onto a man hoist which is basically a big cage that took us into the heart of the mine. It was very loud so this was where we wore our ear plugs. Once we got in the mine, we were all very impressed! Since the mine is so big, we traveled in Jeeps to the destinations through long tunnels. We learned that the surface we were standing on (underground) would have been on the earth's surface 50 million years ago! It was once a very big lake that covered most of Wyoming. We learned about the dry eras and wet eras by looking at the different layers of the earth on the walls of the mine. Through the wet and dry eras, trona was produced - it looks like a light glass-like rock. There are several trona beds around the state but FMC is the biggest, producing the most trona.

One of the most amazing parts of the mine was the long wall miner. It is essentially a gigantic 9 foot spinning blade that chops up the solid rock wall into chunks that are transported onto a conveyor belt bellow for further processing. And as it chops up the wall, you can hear the earth creaking and breaking around the machine - we even saw it crumble at one point. But don't worry! The miners (and us as well) never went into areas that were unstable - we were always sheltered under huge hydraulic supports that kept us safe. Even after the massive spinning blade stopped, the earth continued to shift from the movement and cracks began to form while some pieces of the wall caved in and out.

This is definitely an experience we will never forget! See some more of our mine adventure below.