We began the day by taking the first tour at the Soudan Mine State Park. The Soudan mine was the Cadillac of underground iron mines in it's day. It's located in the Iron Range area of northern MN. Operations ceased in 1962 and it became part of the MN state park system shortly thereafter. The tour takes you under the original open pit mine site to Level 27, about a half mile down.
You get into the cage the miners used to go to work and are lowered at a slant (that you don't really notice) by cables that are operated from the Engine House above ground.
Once there you get in one of the little train cars and travel three quarters of a mile to the area being mined.
Originally the trains were pulled by donkeys, who were by far the best treated of all the mine employees. They lived underground but were brought up every few weeks for R+R. They were very smart. When the whistle blew for shift change, they would just sit down and not budge until a new crew arrived. Also, they could understand commands in the many different languages used by the immigrant miners. The mine was cold, about 50 degrees. Today it has lighting enough so that you can see the rock face and to find your way around, but it certainly isn't bright.
The guide showed us what it would look like by candle light, which was first used. The miners were looking for hematite, which was layered in with other rocks, especially greenstone and Jasper.
We exited the mine and looked around the buildings on the surface. This is a tour that we would recommend to anyone.
It was fascinating and we could have stayed much longer, but we had places to go and wolves to see.
Next stop was Ely, where I spent many a happy day with my canoe friends. It was a bit strange to be there without the other Maries. We went to the International Wolf Center and caught one of the enrichment programs. The Center has both an Exhibit Pack and a Retired Pack. The Exhibit Pack has 4 members, and the program was both to provide enrichment for the wolves and educate the public.
It consisted of having the Curator hide food bits around the enclosure, then the wolves found them.
It brought them near the viewing windows, and also stimulated a lot of pack behaviors. The dominant male wolf was retired a couple of weeks ago, so now there is a void for that position. There are three males and one female in the Exhibit Pack, and the dominant female is making the most of being the Queen! She took treats away from others, chased them away from food, and in general was a real pain.
The males seemed to accept the behavior, as they are waiting for her to choose who she will pair-bond with.
We went back to town and stopped to view the pillow rock made of Ely greenstone.
It is 2.7 billion years old. Then lunch and we began the long ride down to the coast of Lake Superior. We then drove up the coast to Thunder Bay, Ontario, arriving at Ann Amadon Fennell's home at about 8:15pm.
Ann and I went to high school together. Her daughter, Catherine, was also home so we had a "family" dinner and spent the evening chatting. It was a long, full day but so good to be with friends.
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