If you've ever driven US Highway 2, you might have passed this 10 foot tall caricature of Big John, which sits in the mine's parking lot. For those of you who don't know, Big John is a bit of a tall tale, made popular by Jimmy Dean's song Big Bad John. The song boasts of a mysterious miner of epic proportions ("He stood six foot six and weighed two forty-five") who saved 20 miners from a collapsed mine ceiling by holding up the timber supports. But the story goes that just before the miners could return with the proper tools to free him from the shaft, the tunnel collapsed completely and Big John was crushed at the bottom of the mine. It's a sad story, but a great song!But I digress! The Iron Mountain Iron Mine was operational from 1870 to 1945 and produced 22 tons of iron ore during that time. Today the mine is accessible to visitors looking to catch a glimpse of the amazing sights that still lay underground!
While we waited for our tour to begin, we had some time to explore the Gift and Rock Shop.
Talk about a lot of things to look through- from gaudy trinkets to rare minerals, this shop had it all!
But after a few minutes of browsing it was time to don our hardhats...
Board our train...
And enter the Iron Mountain Iron Mine!
And yes, you read that sign correctly! The train took us 2600 feet into the side of the mine. On the way we were able to see ribbons of quartz, calcium and iron, along with various other minerals.
After our train had reached the end of the tracks, it was up to us to walk the rest of the way! I was especially glad that the tunnels had been run with electricity, but I couldn't help but imagine how incredibly dark it must have been for the miners who relied on the light of a single candle each day!
Our first stop of the tour was the smaller of the two stopes (which is "a step-like excavation made in a mine to extract ore").
Can you imagine drilling on an incline like that? I shudder to think what it must have been like to be the men working at the bottom when a large chunk of rock or iron came tumbling down!
As our tour progressed we were able to witness demonstrations of mining techniques over the years, from 2-person hand drills to electric single-man units. (The tools we saw were in fact original to the mine and had been left underground when the mine was closed.) After walking a bit further into the mine we reached the Big Stope.
As the name implies, this was a particularly large stope that the miners uncovered towards the end of the mine's time.
I wish I could remember the details of this incredible stope- the numbers were staggering! But since I can't, I'll simply tell you that the figure you see in the back of the picture... the little ball of light? That is an exact replica of the Big John figurine in the mine's parking lot that I showed you earlier. Yes- that little ball of light is actually 10 feet tall, which should give you an idea of how vast this stope really was!
After the mine had closed, the ceiling collapsed causing that interesting design in the ceiling.
The only people that get to cross the stope are people from the DNR (Department of Natural resources) for their yearly bat count... now wouldn't that be an interesting job?!After we'd seen the Big Stope it was time to re-board the train and make our way out of the mine.
We had such a great time in the mine! As it's quite unique, if you're ever in the area I urge you to visit... I promise that you'll find it at least a bit interesting!
Thank you for stopping by- I hope you have a wonderful day!
