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I know there is a huge operation in River Rouge for mining salt. I thought I remember thought there was more than one salt mine in Detroit and multiple covered shafts hidden over the city. Can anyone confirm this or the location of the closed mines. Also where there any mining operations in the Metro Detroit area other than rock and granite.

Detroit Salt is located in Melvindale. There are Emergency shafts, which will not be disclosed for obvious reasons. Other than salt, which is mined in Windsor also. The only other mining/quarry is of lime stone in Riverview, but on a limited basis. Nothing else in the Metro Detroit area.

Yes it does go under Melvindale, Allen and Lincoln Park but the address shows Detroit which is where the main shaft is. I am not trying to sneak into there but find other abandoned mines in the area.




Detroit Salt Company
12841 Sanders St, Detroit, MI 48217

I believe all mine shafts and bore holes must be registered with the state and are public record. Not sure if there is a public database somewhere you may have to go to an office in Lansing to view them. I know there is an online database of wells somewhere that I have seen.

The State of Michigan does have a map of all of the mining operations ( on line and I think I might have found it because of some conversations on one of these boards ). The salt deposit is very large as well and the limestone . There is some coal as well . Will try to locate that link.............

According to MDOT maps, Detroit Salt and the Marathon Refinery are within the corporate boundary of the City of Detroit. It's my understanding the Detroit, Windsor, Cleveland and New York salt mines are mining in the same huge salt formation.

There's still salt mining taking place north of Detroit as well, to a certain extent. The old Diamond Crystal Salt plant in St. Clair is still producing salt as well.

Good luck getting into the "abandoned" mines. If the caverns had just one entrance/exit, and the sides/roof were considered to be thick enough, they've likely been converted to other uses. Underground bulk commodity storage is pretty big in this area, and I suspect those facilities are using the otherwise "abandoned" caverns left behind after salt was extracted. As a result, you can also expect these areas to be heavily secured.

It never hurts to look and check but it is hard to find them. I just love exploring anything abandoned.

I'm always game to explore anything old and abandoned!

wagnew0923 wrote:It never hurts to look and check but it is hard to find them. I just love exploring anything abandoned.

I agree- I enjoy checking out abandoned places as well. I'd love to check out some of the coal mines up in the Thumb, but what's left of the salt mines were viable enough to serve another purpose. It would be really cool to be able to see them in person though.

AARR wrote:I'm always game to explore anything old and abandoned!

wagnew0923 wrote:It never hurts to look and check but it is hard to find them. I just love exploring anything abandoned.

Several years ago, one of the Detroit area TV stations did a feature on the salt mines. They showed some huge caverns, with roads and large dump trucks driving around. It was like a small city under the city. I don't remember what station it was, but it was interesting.

I hear Detroit Salt gave public tours well into the 80's. Anyway, mines are dangerous places even when fully operational with all the safety precautions; it's not really something you want to mess with when they are closed. The urbexing stuff is even safer than messing with an abandoned mine. Either way, Detroit Salt is still very much in operation and I've heard very tight on security.

Here is some footage of the Detroit salt company switching form the bridge. Thankfully on this day DPD told the Marathon want to be cops to shove off.

Thankfully on this day DPD told the Marathon want to be cops to shove off.

Best news in a long time. I had an encounter with the goons several years ago. If they ever bother me again, I'll call 911 and say I'm being accosted by some police impersonators.