Soudan Mine, Soudan, MN

The Sudan Mine is the oldest and largest iron ore mine in Minnesota.  It is no longer functioning and is now a state park.  We went on a tour of this mine that produced tons and tons of iron ore until the 1960s

We entered the shaft by getting into the double decker cars you see on the right.  There were about 10 of us in each car.  They shut the doors and we went down 27 floors.  There is no light and it was very noisy.

Afterwards we went to the engine house to see the mechanism that controlled the cars as they descended and ascended into the mine.  Huge metal cables lifted and lowered cars at the same time.  Originally they were used to lower the miners and raise the ore.

                                     
Once down there we traveled in these cars that were originally used to bring out the ore, for 3/4 mile.  It was very dark and the temperature was 51 without the wind chill of the moving train.  The original miners only had candlelight to see by.

 As we were waiting to come back up. our guide showed us where the Dept of Energy and 90 universities had built a MINOS center to study neutrinos, one of the smallest particles ever.  It no longer is used, but we were very interested in seeing it as...

We had visited another neutrino study center in Orr that was functioning and had learned a bit about physics there.