The Tour.
The tour began at these large metal gates to the mine. The pipe pictured lower left was a drainage pipe for the pumps keeping the mine from flooding. When the mine was no longer profitable, the pumps were shut down and the lower levels flooded.
View down the adit behind the gates, complete with ore car and tracks.
This sign was posted at the inclined shaft for the mechanical hoist. The hoist and its operators were responsible for ferrying miners down to their work stations, and hauling ore to the conveyors. These bell signals were used to direct traffic.
A pair of toilets used down in the mines. The story goes that whoever was late that day or otherwise on the boss' bad side was assigned toilet cleaning duty. I don't think that the toilets were normally placed this close together.
A fluorescent room in the Sterling Hill Mine, showcasing boulders of the most common fluorescent minerals found here as well as their presence in the walls of the mine itself.
When the pumps keeping the mine dry were shut off, the water in the tunnels rose until it reached the natural water table. Pictured here is an inclined shaft leading to deeper areas of the mine now filled with water.
Peering into a pocket where rusty chains descend into water.
These huge specimens were in the museum, the largest easily 4' tall.
This was posted outside the museum men's room.
An old mine hoist control unit.
A photograph of "the very last Sterling Hill miner," posted on the front of his old locker.
Sterling Hill closed in 1986.
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