Another Chapter!

I should finish up our BC trip shouldn't I?! Another summer-y exciting adventure we had while in BC was to take a train trip into an old abandoned mine. Now mind you we didn't go far under ground, but enough to feel the air turn cool and damp. And there was a retired miner in there explaining the mining operations to us on staged apparatus. BUT, to add to the adventure, our train did de-rail leaving the station. How many people can say they came out of a de-railment unscathed? We did! As you look at the pictures you will realize why this wasn't really as spectacular as it sounds.



OUR TRAIN INTO THE MINE!



VIEW ALONG THE WAY

As we circled around and went up the other side of the valley from the station, we looked back across and could see the Power House still standing, but of course abandoned (for now). The white building up the hill was the original entrance to the mine built in 1915. Much of the actual mine can no longer be entered since they have allowed it to flood with ground water. There are also a variety of original mine cars along side the mainline. Everything from the emergency "ambulance" cars to ones that took the former men of the deep to their place in the workings of the mine. Just looking at those cars gave me the shudders. You couldn't be claustrophobic or mind rubbing shoulders closely with your neighbor. I also could not picture the tall men of our family squeezing (literally) themselves into these cars! I guess you do what you have to do to work!



INSIDE THE MINE

As part of the mine tour we were taken into what they called a _________ Room. (Someone reading this blog can fill in the blank for me!) This room was sealed off for miners to retreat to in the event of a fire or emergency of some sort. As many as 30 men could be packed in one of these designated areas for anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days! They stayed sealed behind the door until they got the all clear to come out.

How do you get a fire in a mine? In the case of this mine and what they were searching for, the rock itself could ignite. Certain quality of rock when unearthed and exposed to oxygen would ignite, but only a certain portion of the mine had to contend with this.

The end of the road was the base of the ski hill. We had a choice to get off and have lunch up there, we kept right on going!

In order to fill in the blanks and numerous questions stirred up in our minds from this little tour, we bought a book in the handy train station gift shop. It also shares the stories the miners tell of their experiences. A good read I would say!

The final result of our mining excursion was a renewed interest to find more of the abandoned mines that scatter the landscape in our vacation area. But that is the next and final chaper yet to come!