In a Mine

Sorry for the silence, it has been a busy semester. But I've been thinking of the McShorties a lot today, so I wanted to work on some posts.
In a return to our family trip to the U.P., we all agreed that one of the coolest things we did was to go to an old iron mine: Iron Mountain Iron Mine. The whole U.P. is mining country and both sides of the McShorties' family has at least temporary roots there. It was cool to see the country and to experience a little of the place.

 Here is the family, pre-mine.

 Checking out the steam powered machinery. You can see a grey duct underneath the red rails--that is an air duct that pumps air from the mine into the gem shop that runs the tours as a form of air conditioning. The mine was really quite cold, I think it was supposed to be about 50 degrees or less.

 Little Miss never seemed quite sure of this tour. Perhaps the fashion wasn't up to her standards.

 On the train, ready to go!

 In the tunnel. The train ran surprisingly close to the walls. You could easily touch them while seated on the train. The walls and ceiling were also dripping water so the floors were a packed mud. A tough place to work overall I would think!

We had a good guide. There were three main attractions. The equipment area (here), the end of a tunnel (where she blew out a candle which would have been the miner's main source of light--I think, putting us in pitch black), and the Big Stope.

 Here we are looking across a stretch of 600 feet long (from here to the little glimpse of daylight) 300 feet wide, and 180 feet tall (though a cave in has filled the bottom, so it was once much deeper). It is called the Big Stope.

 On the way back out of the mine--everyone survived!!