petehowell
Well Known Member
Andi and I found ourselves with a suddenly free Friday afternoon, so we decided to head north to check something off of our trip list, the Soudan Mine near Tower, Minnesota.
We had a nice push on the way up, seeing ground speeds over 175 knots, making the trip less than an hour. The 15kt cross wind and uneven terrain at 12D made for a landing we will not elaborate on.....
Both airport cars were kaput, but a call to a local RVer got us quickly set up with a ride the for day- seriously, RV friends are the Best! It is only 3 miles over to the mine and we were soon getting hardhats and the briefing to go down.
The tram to the bottom is raised and lowered with a complex system of cables that wind about a drum.
This is no junior varsity mine, it is not a few hundred feet down, it is a few thousand! After a 3min tram ride, you are greeted with this!
You then board a mine train for 3/4 mile ride down a shaft. The lovely Dayna was our head tour guide.
At the end of the line, you get out and explore large mining area under nearly a 1/2 mile of solid rock!
After an hour, we headed back to the surface, but after a bathroom break and some time in the warm sun (it is a chilly 50degF in the mine) were were headed back down....... to the lab.
Being under 2,300ft of solid rock provides a pretty interesting and isolated environment, including one of the places on earth most isolated from cosmic rays. So isolated, in fact, that they built a complete physics lab down there!
The lab is part of the University of Minnesota and they were/are studying proton decay and neutrinos. Our tour guide, Pete, made the whole thing fun and approachable. They actually fire particles from Fermilab in Chicago at this lab thru over 400 miles of the earth. The science is in what they catch in the detector.
In keeping with the "Go Big or Go Home" Theme of this place, the lab is not just a few rooms, it is what the Donald would say is "Yuuuge"..... play wiffle ball huge(The MINOS cavern is 82 meters (270') long, 15 meters (50') wide, and 13 meters(40') high!)
You know it is good if it was named the #1 Nerd Road Trip in 'Merica!
After an hour in the lab, it was back to the surface, a quick dinner in town, and a great sunset over the lake on departure.
Andi's father was a High Energy Physicist at Iowa State and we both thought he would have loved this place. If you are ever up North - it is well worth the trip!
We had a nice push on the way up, seeing ground speeds over 175 knots, making the trip less than an hour. The 15kt cross wind and uneven terrain at 12D made for a landing we will not elaborate on.....
Both airport cars were kaput, but a call to a local RVer got us quickly set up with a ride the for day- seriously, RV friends are the Best! It is only 3 miles over to the mine and we were soon getting hardhats and the briefing to go down.
The tram to the bottom is raised and lowered with a complex system of cables that wind about a drum.
This is no junior varsity mine, it is not a few hundred feet down, it is a few thousand! After a 3min tram ride, you are greeted with this!
You then board a mine train for 3/4 mile ride down a shaft. The lovely Dayna was our head tour guide.
At the end of the line, you get out and explore large mining area under nearly a 1/2 mile of solid rock!
After an hour, we headed back to the surface, but after a bathroom break and some time in the warm sun (it is a chilly 50degF in the mine) were were headed back down....... to the lab.
Being under 2,300ft of solid rock provides a pretty interesting and isolated environment, including one of the places on earth most isolated from cosmic rays. So isolated, in fact, that they built a complete physics lab down there!
The lab is part of the University of Minnesota and they were/are studying proton decay and neutrinos. Our tour guide, Pete, made the whole thing fun and approachable. They actually fire particles from Fermilab in Chicago at this lab thru over 400 miles of the earth. The science is in what they catch in the detector.
In keeping with the "Go Big or Go Home" Theme of this place, the lab is not just a few rooms, it is what the Donald would say is "Yuuuge"..... play wiffle ball huge(The MINOS cavern is 82 meters (270') long, 15 meters (50') wide, and 13 meters(40') high!)
You know it is good if it was named the #1 Nerd Road Trip in 'Merica!
After an hour in the lab, it was back to the surface, a quick dinner in town, and a great sunset over the lake on departure.
Andi's father was a High Energy Physicist at Iowa State and we both thought he would have loved this place. If you are ever up North - it is well worth the trip!
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