Yesterday, June 30, was a day to clean the house inside and out and wait for RV Wizard to arrive to check on our a/c. All is well with the a/c. "RV Wizard" is a man by the name of Kevin who actually owns the Fairmont RV Park where we are staying! He also does government work so he is not on site all the time. He actually arrived around 6:00 p.m. and didn't even charge us!
Today, July 1, we headed to Butte and the World Museum of Mining (WMM). The WMM is one of the few museums in the world located on an actual mine yard. The WMM immerses you in the story of mining's heyday unlike anywhere else (according to their brochure)! The Orphan Girl Mine headframe stands sentinel over the cobbled streets and 50 buildings of Hell Roarin' Gulch. Not only did we walk in the footsteps of past miners before us, our guide, Mick, was a miner who worked the mines when he was 18 for seven years until he became a science teacher; he taught for 38 years and today we were his pupils! He was quite a guide with many stories that completely pulled us in with awe and admiration. The life of a miner is not an easy one, albeit a lot easier now with the newer technology than it was in the 1800s.
Before the tour, we were educated on Butte, MT in general, as far as the mines were concerned. During WWII, while Mick's father was serving our country in the Army, he was needed more in Butte in the mines for one reason - bullets! Ninety percent of the bullets used during WWI and II were made from the ore that came from the mines! His father had a mining background and therefore the Army needed his expertise to keep up with the demand! Butte's motto is "The Richest Hill on Earth" because of the silver, zinc, lead, and cooper in the mountains!
The underground tour was quite a journey. We were fitted with belts and lighted helmets! The tour took us 65 feet down into the 2,700 foot deep Orphan Girl Mine, which produced 7.5 million ounces of silver while in operation! Although the mines were shaft mines, we walked down and were not put in the pulley elevator, thank goodness, but we saw the actual pulley elevator used from 1875 to 1956. The original shaft is still there, which is made out of mahogany. The Orphan Girl was a popular place to work because it was cool underground (55 to 65 degrees) compared to most of the "hot boxes" on the Butte hill, where temperatures at 3000 or 4000 or 5000 feet down could be above 100 degrees! I must say, that 55 degree cool mine temperature today was quite refreshing!
Unfortunately, my camera's SanDisk "died" so I have lost some photos, but I had my handy back-up and I have a few photos to share!
The tunnel made for the tourists!
Thom modeling the headgear and miner belt that we all wore.
The rail tracks in the mine.
Because of the weight of the orecars that held the ore and the need to produce more, a veterinarian came up with the idea to hoist mules down in a custom made "straight jacket", and the mules stayed in the mine for years, the longest 29 years. They also became blind from being down in the mine. There were actually mule farmers who only sent their hardiest mules to the mines. I found this both interesting and sad.
This is the "air powered mucker", which eventually replaced the human "muckers", person who shovels broken ore or waste rock into orecars or orebuckets
This is what we would now call a Port-O-Let.
The pulley elevator, which held 7 miners very close! Mick, our guide, gave a demonstration of the signal bell, which was quite interesting on the sounds that communicated how fast, slow, and what level (up or down) the shaft the elevator was needed to go.
Looking down the shaft.
A candle was the only light the miners had. If you worked an 8-hour shift, you were given 8 candles; 12-hour shift, 12 candles.
The Orphan Girl Mine, which I copied from another site because of technical difficulties with my SanDisk.
After the our, which actually took 2-1/2 hours, we headed to a restaurant that we found in a book our friends in Ocala gave us before we left, "Roadfood" - Matt's Place! It was a very small diner-like place where we had chocolate milk shakes and pork chop sandwiches!
Until next blog ...
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