If you’ve opted to follow US-50 rather than the Santa Fe Trail tour along US-56, be sure to check out Hutchinson (pop. 40,787), a large and lively city that’s home to the world’s longest grain elevator (over a half mile long). The town’s old salt mines, some 600 feet below ground, are now used for storage of important archives, including the original negatives of many classic Hollywood films. The mines, not surprisingly, aren’t open to visitors, but Hutchinson does have another surprising attraction: the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center (daily; $13; 620/662-2305 or 800/397-0330), at 1100 N. Plum Street. The center boasts a great collection of historic air- and spacecraft, including Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules; a Lockheed SR-71A “Blackbird” spy plane; and a pair of German V-1 and V-2 rockets; plus two planetarium shows and an IMAX theater.
