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.

International Wolf Center, Ely, MN

 The Wolf Center studies the habits of the wolves and has special educational programs.  We learned how they hunt and share food.  They have huge canine teeth which they use to kill their prey.

 They have 3 Arctic wolves and 2 gray wolves.

 These wolves have been socialized and are not afraid of humans, but they are wild and dangerous.

Part of the Saturday night program was to watch them eat.  On this particular evening, they dined on beaver!

Ely, MN

 We went to the Dorothy Molter Museum in Ely.  She was a woman who trained to be a nurse and then decided to live on Knife Lake on the Isle of Pines.  She lived in a very remote area for 54 years, most of the time by herself with no electricity or running water!  She was known as the "Root Beer Lady" because she served root beer to the canoers who passed by as they traveled thru the Boundary Waters.  When it became to difficult to portage the root beer in, she made her own.  They said it tasted horrible but she made and sold 10,000  bottles a year!
See if you can read her sign.

This was her winter house!  in the summer she slept in a tent.

Ely, MN

 We hiked 4 miles along the path of old Ely mines.  Here is a small shaft of one of them.

This large remnant of one of the mining operations is right across from a huge lodge where we ate lunch.

This is one of the lakes along the way!

Fishing on Newton Lake outside of Ely, MN

David and Jim had another fishing adventure close to the Boundary Waters.  The bicycle tires are for when they have to get out of the boat and portage the boat and supplies on land to another body of water, which they did.  This time we ate walleye, northern pike, and bass.

Kawishiwi Falls

As we were hiking to the falls we saw this tree that looked like it was walking!

 These falls were about 2 miles from our campground.  They were so beautiful and had much more water than many of the other falls we have seen.

 Here is where the falls feed out into a river.

This is the dam that feeds the falls.

Fishing

 The guys hired a fishing guide to take them out.  We ate walleye and northern pike for dinner!