The Homestake mine is/was the largest in the United States and was shut down in 2002. It started as the open pit as pictured and is 1200 ft deep by 2500 feet wide but then they started underground mining and it reached over 8000 feet deep. When first dug it was 136F and 98% humidity at the bottom till several years later when more ventilation was dug. It is now being reopened as a science lab and they are pumping out 5000 feedt of flooded mine shafts. All the shaft cable works is still in operation down to the 4500 ft level at which you had to transfer to a different shaft to go to the 8000 ft bottom. Peak employment was 10,000 but slowed to 300 before closing
Look closely in the pics below to see the deer resting outside the mine building.
These pics Pat took as he cruised outside Lead on his way home.
I'm trying to get as much work done as possible and thought I would work this weekend when I got an e-mail from the office saying that no work this weekend as our system is running an update. Oh well, tomorrow I will cram in as much as I can.
Monday we're traveling to Yellowstone. We had an e-mail from Chad (the couple we met in Colorado City) and he told us a person was killed by a bear last week at Yellowstone. That's scary,I'll be sure to keep a close eye on Blaze.
Stay tuned for more to come.........
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