For those of you have coal in your blood or not, you can tour a mine in Springhill, NS. The cost is only $5.00 and you get to hack out some coal to take home. It is not goverment supported but town created and run by donations. I'd say coal mining was "he**" back in the day. In my opinion, todays man or woman wouldn't do it for any amount of money. It was surreal down under ground, and not in a good way. Kind regards to all, Victoria

----- Original Message ----- From: "vereid" Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2007 10:40 AM Subject: [NS-L] tour a coal mine > For those of you have coal in your blood or not, you can tour a mine in > Springhill, NS. The cost is only $5.00 and you get to hack out some coal > to take home. It is not goverment supported but town created and run by > donations. Over the years, whenever we've gone to Springhill, the mine itself was never open for tours. We eventually gave up, going up to Glace Bay/Sydney instead, where we went underground. My husband has been underground many times, in a variety of mines (coal, zinc, nickel, gold, silver, potash, salt), both working and touring. He's been to mines all over Canada, quite a few in the USA, and others in Mexico, Columbia & Chile S. America, UK, Czech Republic & Poland (including a 1000 year old salt mine - still in operation when he was there). I had never been underground, until going to CB. It was quite the experience. Some of my relatives worked the Springhill mines, underground and above. Believe one was amongst those who were lost in the last disaster. We have a large collection of mining and related artifacts, covering a 150- 200y period. Includes items from around the world (Chinese miner's hat from the early 20thC; late 19thC pair of children's hob-nailed boots from Lancashire). We also have some of the last coal (10 x 50lb sacks) to come out of the last operating coal mine .. not sure off-hand if it was in Glace Bay or North Sydney. It will be used in a 19thC coal mining scene in our private museum. We have the only gold stamp mill in a private collection (that we know of - Canada esp.) which still works, with its' copper plate in tact. The latter was made by Isaac MATHESON of Pictou NS in the late 19thC and came out of an expended gold mine in the Waverly/Renfrew Halifax Co NS area. Bought from the HORNE family. Plus have 5,000+ mining/related books. And an extremely large collection of 'rocks' and minerals .. you name it, chances are we have it, including a collection of florescent rocks from around the world, though mostly from USA and Canada. Kids love the 'ugly rocks' which glow under ultra-violet lights. > I'd say coal mining was "he**" back in the day. In my opinion, todays man > or woman wouldn't do it for any amount of money. It was surreal down > under ground, and not in a good way. Any type of mining was "he** back in the day" ... and to this day ... but fortunately we have Safety Boards/Gov't regulations now and types of safety measures unknown 25 years ago, far less before that time. Rock/coal formations can be unpredicable .. a vug for instance can go undetected by mine Safety Inspectors, but is an accident just waiting to happen. Whilst there have been measures in place to reduce the chances of a vug breaking away, it depends in part how big it is. Current safety measures in place may not hold a 100 or 200 ton vug. They certainly have reduced deaths and injuries from the smaller ones. The Federal and Provincial Gov'ts, plus the industry itself, have supported Mine Safety Boards thoughout Canada, in the continuing development of mine safety equipment/measures. Over the years, my husband has been involved in the research and testing of some of these measures, particularly when it involves the use of explosives. Indeed, the boards and industries responsible, have made the explosives themselves safer to handle and use. Part of my husband's work in the research and testing of explosives, entailed teaching mining students the properties and handling of them. Coal mining is still extremely dangerous ... you just have to look to news reports of the past 2 years to see that ... and in NS not too many years ago, to the Stellerton area in particular . Even in this day and age, all the safety measures in the world won't be of much help to the men of the deeps, should there be a bad apple within the barrel. Toni ~ Ontario Wilton Creek Miners' & Minerals Museum Maple Rd., Camden East Ont. County Rd #4 & Hwy 401 - Exit # 593 (approx.1/8th mile to Maple Rd & museum / turn right) NO CHARGE to visit this private collection. July 1 2007 to Labour Day 2007. Sundays & Mondays only /12 noon-6pm. rheater2@cogeco.ca