On June 8, 2009 we went to the Western Museum of Mining and Industry. This trip was impromptu, because the day before we learned that they were celebrating 150 years of mining history, and were offering $1.50 admissions. But hey! That's the beauty of homeschooling! So, we picked up and went out to the museum to see what we could learn! We sat through a 25 minute film on the history of the gold rush, and then toured the museum with our tour guide. He showed us many interesting things, and even started up the machines for us so we could see them in action. All the machinery at the time it was actually used was run by steam power, but today they are run by compressed air. We saw samples of the many different types of ores that are mined, here in Colorado and elsewhere. The girls got to pan for gold, although they could not keep anything that was found. After the tour, we went back through to see the things that our guide had skipped over, and then headed outside, where there were many more sights to see. We saw the ore processing building, and there was someone there who started up the whole thing for us to see. Quite impressive! When we got home, I remembered that we had been given a set of Time Life books on the west, and so I got out the ones that had to do with mining, and the girls sat around for another hour at home looking at all the pictures, getting excited when they saw some of the same things in the pictures that they had seen at the museum. What a great history day!
No comments:
Post a Comment