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Soudan Underground Mine
On Wednesday August 8 we journeyed from our campsite south of Ely to Soudan Underground Mine State Park. This mine was owned by U.S. Steel and given to the state of Minnesota when it closed in the early 1960s. I visited the mine at least once as a kid. It is the oldest and deepest mine on the Vermilion Range.
We took the elevator down 2400 feet in about 3 minutes, then took a train trip to an area where the tour guide talked about the mine, mining, and miners. The tour happens on the 27th level down, as it is the easiest, and quite like safest, place to put a large group.
The Huntington Canyon, Utah mine collapse had occurred recently, and the tour guide, a former miner and the descendant of miners, turned off the lights and talked about what it would be like to be those miners. Your light would only last some hours, you probably wouldn't have food or water. The Soudan mine has deep holes in it, so if you had been stuck there, you'd have to move around quite carefully.
I later discussed the dangerous jobs left in our country with Karen and some of my neighbors. Mining is one of those jobs, the others we could think of are forestry, fishing and farming. There are probably others we haven't considered. Some of these jobs have certainly gotten safer over the years, but they're still risky, especially compared to my job as a software engineer in a nice office.
Posted at 11:21AM Aug 22, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life |
