Big Holes in the Ground

I woke up on Saturday morning and headed over to Hull Rust Mahoning Mine View , which provided a good view of an active open pit mine. The area was pretty impressive because for miles the ground had been excavated and only a giant hole remained. I do not remember the exact dimensions, but the entire mine was something like twenty miles long, with the widest part being around three miles, and at its greatest depth stretched several hundred feet into the earth. In fact, some areas of the mine were basically lakes because ground water had collected there. The first place I headed within Mine View was the visitor center, and there I was greeted by a very knowledgeable and friendly guide. He was an elderly citizen of Hibbing who never actually worked in the mines, but was still able to thoroughly describe the history of this mine and some of its current operation. In a sort of odd but useless connection, I learned some of the iron ore that was extracted from this mine was probably processed at the steel mill where my father worked, Ispat Inland. Here I was, pretty far away from home but found something with an obscure connection back to my family.

Drilling holes to blow things up

While watching the workers in the mine, I was able to spot an area where they were currently drilling to place explosives. I guess that should not be too surprising though, since the majority of mining is split between blowing up rock and hauling it out. Unfortunately, blasts were usually scheduled during the middle of the week so I would not have an opportunity to watch a bunch of dirt be blown up. The sheer scale of the operation is also amazing. Tons upon tons of material was moved by extremely large vehicles. Mine View even had some retired trucks and tires on display that had been used in mines. It was pretty neat to be able to stand next to tires that were bigger than me. It was the ultimate fulfillment of playing with toy trucks as a kid in the sandbox.

There was another entire section of Mine View which was the location of "Old Hibbing." Apparently, many years back the entire town actually had to be relocated because of the valuable minerals around it. Walking through this area was a bit creepy because it consisted only of a bunch of old foundations and some signs describing what the buildings were once used for. I enjoyed it though because I find it interesting exploring old and abandoned sites like that.

Big trucks

Right outside the park there were also some really nice bike trails. Although this far north I bet they were used for snowmobiles just about as much as for bikes. Unfortunately though, I thought I would be pressed for time, so I was not able to explore the trails much, being able to walk only a couple of miles on them. In spite of the abbreviated expedition, I still spotted some nice scenery. It would have been really fun to have had my bike with me or something, but alas, it was not so.

Discovery Center = State Fair

After I finished looking around Mine View, I headed towards my second destination for that day, Ironworld Discovery Center . It was basically a big outdoor museum dealing with mining. Unfortunately, the St. Louis County Fair was occurring right next to it so parking was pretty screwy. Like cattle, I was basically corralled into the parking lot for the county fair. I did not really want to pay the couple of bucks to park, but I figured I could take a quick hiatus at the county fair before heading into the Discovery Center. So I bought a ticket and explored the fair. It seemed like a fairly typical county fair, with the rides, food, animals, and the like. I only got harassed by one roustabout, so that was not too bad. The one thing that stood out as unique to this area was the showing off of a snowplow. But I guess in an area this far north in Minnesota where they get a ton of snow, a snowplow is something that would be vital to life half the year, and it might as well be displayed. Overall, the fair was not anything too spectacular, but it was nice to walk around.

While exploring the fair, I was also able to find my way over to the Discovery Center. Unfortunately, it was not exactly what I was expecting. Their advertisements stated that they gave tours of a working mine in which you actually went through an active mine. I did not find out till I was there though, that they only gave these tours on Wednesdays so I would not be able to take one. This bummed me out because it would have been neat to be able to go through an open pit mine. The other things that they had at the Discovery Center did not sound all that exiting to go in and see.

Nap Time

The only activities I had planned were visiting Mine View and Discovery World, so with nothing left to do, I headed back to my campground. It was only about three in the afternoon, so I had some time to kill. Instead of trying to find some other exciting activity around the area to cram into my weekend, I decided to just relax, so I laid down in my tent and read for a while. I was also pretty tired so I took a couple hour nap.

Oohh...the sun

By the time I awoke from my nap it was early evening. I still did not have anything else to do, so I walked around the area surrounding the campground. I had no particular destination in mind, so I just went wandering and exploring. I happened upon a local race track which had racing going on that night. I was not in much of a mood to watch cars going around in circles by myself so I kept on going. About the only other thing I found on my expedition was a baseball/soccer park across the street from my campground. It would have been a little difficult to play soccer or baseball by myself though, so after just walking around for a bit I sat for a while and watched the sun set.

I figured it was not the best idea to be wandering around a foreign town in the dark, so I went back to my campsite. It was dark by this time and since I did not really have anything else to do, I turned in for bed and looked forward to the next day.

Overall, this day was a little disappointing, with the Discovery Center falling through and not having quite enough to fill up the whole day, but it did give me a chance to relax, and I still had high hopes for the next day.