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Getting down and deep in Rossland’s mining history
Thursday, June 28th, 2007 by GetawayBC.com
The work was hard, the air thick with dust, the light minimal and the pay poor. For the early miners of Rossland, life in the mine was that of darkness, and danger.
Nearly 100 years later, those who visit the Rossland Mining Museum can experience a bit of the life of a miner.
Before the Le Roi mine tour starts, visitors can view several exhibits that showcase Rossland’s early history.
One of the more impressive pieces is a 28-foot muralwhich depicts several of the individuals who have contributed to Rossland history. It has a copper and gold background to represent the mineral wealth upon which Rossland was founded.
Along with artifacts, including Nancy Greene’s skis, the Jeldness Cup and a room devoted to bottles collected over 100 years, there are displays that re-create some prominent Rossland landmarks. These exhibits include the old post office, Hunter Brothers’ General Store, the Teck Cominco wing and the newly created Chinese exhibit.
Once the Le Roi tour starts, the real magic of the museum comes alive. Allowing visitors to go deep inside the mine is a feature that makes the Rossland Mining Museum truly unique.
The tour starts on the mine grounds where your guide will show various buildings and devices used by the miners, including a century-old time clock made by IBM.
Once you have donned your hard hat and blanket, as it can be as cold as seven degrees in the mine, the descent begins.
When the mine door opens, a large gust of air will come through, giving the mine an eerie sense of wonder. It is not hard to understand why many early miners thought the Le Roi mine to be haunted.
Once in the mine ,visitors soon learn of the type of men who could work in such a dark, cold place through 128 kilometres of underground tunnels.
Miners worked long days in search of ore that averaged 0.5 ounces per tonne of gold, one per cent copper and 0.6 ounces per tonne of silver.
Near the mine entrance, the stalactites and stalagmites exhibit greets a visitor with their majestic wonder. The stalactites, which come from the ceiling, and the stalagmites, which rise from the ground, can take thousands of years to form into large columns.
One of the most impressive features of the mine are the stopes, which were used by miners to extract ore. One of the first stopes a visitor will see in the mine extends 500 feet down. The miners stood on a thin board, while extracting the ore above them. Without safety equipment, the miners had to be experts at balancing while working.
Due to the dangers of mining, life expectancy was low and most surviving miners were deaf by their late-20s as a result of the noise created by the machinery.
The tour continues through several tunnels where a short history on the progression of mining tools is shown.
The tools range from rocks for rock-on-rock mining to the Ingersoll-Rand drill, often called the little giant or widow-maker. The drill released dust in the air that accumulated in a miner’s lungs, eventually killing him with a disease called ‘miner’s consumption’.
To really get a sense of the conditions miners worked in, the tour guide takes time on the tour to turn off the lights. The only illumination comes from a small candle. Candles cost miners five cents and they had to buy them from the company store. Each miner would usually burn eight candles in a day.
The lack of sunlight also caused many miners to be chemically-depressed. The large number of saloons in Rossland during the Rossland’s early history attest to this fact.
At the completion of the tour, everyone in the group has a better appreciation for the men who worked the mines and helped put Rossland on the map. ;