WHITE GOLD What Lies Beneath
L A Geneseo alumnus took a risk to build the world’s second-largest salt mine. In doing so, he preserved a century-old industry. BY KRIS DREESSEN
ike many of Geneseo’s 5,000 students, Scott Lockwood ’04 crossed Sturges Quad thousands of times on his way to accounting classes in the School of Business, oblivious to the massive seam of salt that
courses under campus. The seam stretches across New York and runs clear to Ohio. Every day, workers at the world’s second-largest underground salt mine collect as much as 16,000 tons from the earth and haul it away to de-slick icy roads throughout the Northeast, Canada and Ohio. It’s enough salt to fill a line of 18wheelers five miles long. The mine is so close Scott could have walked to it before his class was over. Scott always drove by the offices of American Rock Salt — which are less than three miles away — but says “I never thought or knew much about it.” Most students spend their entire Geneseo education unaware of the underground city operating nearly beneath their feet. Down under, miners blast, break, crush and load 24/7. Front-end loaders scoop school-bus-sized heaps of salt with every pass. Joe Bucci ’67 can drive 20 minutes through the tunnels to catch up with workers where salt is being excavated.
Joe Bucci ’67 opened American Rock Salt in 1999, saving more than 1,000 jobs and preserving a century-old tradition in the region. PHOTO BY KRIS DREESSEN
Winter 2010
11