Hollywood stores precious treasures in a Kansas salt mine. Here’s what to know
For more than 40 years, major film studios have stored movie reels, props and costumes 650 feet underground in a Hutchinson, Kansas, salt mine. The facility recently made headlines when director Baz Luhrmann tracked down rare, unseen Elvis Presley concert footage stored in the vault.
FULL STORY: Why Hollywood stores some of its most precious treasures in a Kansas salt mine
Here are key takeaways:
• Sony Pictures, 20th Century and Warner Bros. have stored treasures in the mine for more than 40 years. More than 50 acres of storage are off-limits to the public.
• The salt mine’s constant 68-degree temperature and 45% humidity create ideal conditions for preserving paper and film. Its depth protects against tornadoes, floods and earthquakes.
• Items stored there include the original film negative of “The Wizard of Oz,” historic movies “Ben-Hur” and “Star Wars,” every episode of “M*A*S*H” and costumes from “Batman & Robin.”
• Luhrmann found rare footage of Elvis Presley concerts from the 1970s in the vault, which became the basis for his 97-minute documentary/concert film “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.”
• The mine also stores millions of boxes of paper and data, including secret government documents, oil and gas company records and historic New York newspapers reporting Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
• The salt deposit dates back more than 275 million years to the Permian Sea, which left behind 30 trillion tons of salt stretching from northeast of Kansas City through Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.
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