Our below ground tours started at the Soudan Underground Mine with the Physics Lab tour first. The mine is no longer active with mining but is very active with scientific research. There are two studies going on currently. One is on neutrinos; the Fermilab in Chicago shoots neutrinos at the Soudan Physics Lab. The only way the scientists are able to examine the neutrino is when it collides into something and explodes. The other study is on dark matter and most of this went way beyond our smidgen of science knowledge.
This is our guide for Lab; he is a Physicist. The next picture is one of the screens that captures the neutrino!
After being brain boggled, our next tour was the Historical Mine Tour. Our guide talked about life in the mines in the late 1800's. Pretty hard life; very little in the way of safety equipment (if you were lucky, you received a candle), the company made it very clear that if you didn't work, you didn't get paid. Injuries and deaths were commonplace in the mines with no compensation from the company. In fact, widows and their families had to move out of company housing pretty quickly if the miner died.
This is our Historic tour guide and our "ride" down into the bowels of the earth!
This is Paula's happy face because we're going back to the surface! We were where the sun don't shine!
After lunch, we continued with our above ground tour. Biwabik is the home of Honk the Moose; a children's story about two boys who find a moose in their town. The statue is life size!
Eveleth's claim to fame is the world's largest hockey stick and puck; so, of course, we had to see that for ourselves.
Hibbing was our next stop. What's so grand about Hibbing? It's the origin of Greyhound Bus! We enjoyed the museum - lost almost 2 hours there.
Back to the rig and prep for departure to Bemidji!
Your blog is great! We enjoyed Two Harbors last fall, marveling at the difference between the two steam locomotives, and generally poking around the town. Now we want to see Hank the Moose :-)
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