To the Nether and back

The sign you see when you emerge from the cage at the bottom of the Soudan Underground Mine shaft.

The sign you see when you emerge from the cage at the bottom of the Soudan Underground Mine shaft.

Aaron J. Brown

Aaron J. Brown is an Iron Range blogger, author, radio producer and columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Summer vacation is well underway, and not more than a few days into the annual ritual the boys had trod well-worn digital paths across the pretend universe of the video game Minecraft. They are obsessed with finding virtual ore to make tools, houses and various contraptions. Though the geology of Minecraft is a bit suspect (for instance, throwing iron ore into a fire is not exactly how you make a hammer) it did inspire genuine curiosity about rocks, not something easy to spark in 7- and 9-year-olds, respectively.

Because we live on the Iron Range, we knew what we had to do. Down we would go to a real life “Nether” that can’t be replicated on a screen. It was time for a trip to:

Soudan Underground Mine State Park.

The trip was an easy sell to our boys. Would you like to ride in a real-life mine cart half a mile under the Earth? You would? Done.

We piled in the van and headed over to the Vermilion Range. We’re north of Nashwauk and it can sometimes seem like Tower, Soudan and Ely are farther away than they actually are. It was a pleasant summer drive across the spine of the Mesabi Iron Range, up 169 to our destination overlooking Soudan location.

Though it was a warm day, we remembered to bring sweatshirts to wear on the tour. The Soudan Mine is a constant year-round 50 degrees, and as you’re speeding along the little track you can feel the cool breeze.

The boys explore the crusher works above ground at the Soudan Underground Mine State Park.

The boys explore the crusher works above ground at the Soudan Underground Mine State Park.

Here is the reason you should go to the Soudan Underground Mine State Park, and take some kids with if you have any sitting around. When you’re down there trying to take photos with your little smart phone in the low light, they take you into a slope where mining activity once ceased in 1962. There they strike the electric lights and show you the battery lights they had before electricity reached the bottom of the mine. And then they strike those and show you what the mine looked like in the 1890s and first decades of the 20th Century.

The men wore candles on their helmets to mine the blue-gray hard rock iron ore. The cost of those candles was deducted from their pay. Miners walked in the dark around holes that dropped dozens of feet or more; the knowledge of which was critical to surviving a single shift. Their co-workers generally spoke many different languages; it was hard to find someone who spoke the same tongue as you. You were paid for the ore you mined; not the hours you worked, or your long journey down into the mine. To see this, and touch the cool walls, lift the heavy stones, is to know a bit more about why the Iron Range, for all its glories and faults, is the way it is, and we are the way we are. Hungry ancestors endured these conditions for only one reason; a better life for their descendants. A better life for us.

The 27th Level of the Soudan Underground Mine.

The 27th Level of the Soudan Underground Mine.

The Soudan Underground Mine State Park is open for daily tours from Memorial Day weekend through the end of September and the first three weekends of October. The first tour is at 10 a.m. and the last at 4 p.m., with a varying number of tours throughout the day. You may also take a separate tour of the University of Minnesota’s MINOS high energy physics lab during the same hours.

All tours cost $12 for ages 13 and up, $7 for ages 5-12 and free for children under 5. Our younger boys hadn’t yet turned 7 and they did fine on the tour, though if you have a kid who doesn’t like loud noises or enclosed space you’ll want to use some discretion. Also, there are harmless bats in the shafts and drifts. The bats don’t bother you, but as one woman on the tour learned THEY ARE THERE and YOU CAN SEE THEM.

We nabbed dinner up at the Chocolate Moose in Ely. Across the street, Loony’s Emporium advertised rocks, fossils and crystals of all variety. The boys simply had to to look, and after exchanging currency for a handful of polished stones, we headed home, richer with knowledge of the real ore from which we rise.

Aaron J. Brown is an author and college instructor from northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts the Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio. This post first appeared in the Sunday, June 15, 2014 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

 

Soudan Underground Mine State Park. PHOTOS: Aaron J. Brown

Soudan Underground Mine State Park. PHOTOS: Aaron J. Brown


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Comments

  1. Brian Krause says

    I rank this park among the top “hidden gems” in Minnesota. An absolute “must visit” for all.

    IIRC, the staff/tour guides there are top notch as well. Our guy had a background in acting and gave a spectacular performance as a mining reenactor-tour guide

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