Minor Miners

For those of you regularly driving through Salt Lake County you've probably noticed billboards telling people to "Bring your minors to see our miners."  Advertisements for Rio Tinto's Kennicott Copper Mine.  Well today we got that chance to go on a field trip with all of Stephanie's 7th grade, utah history students, to the copper mine.

Did you know... the Bingham Canyon Mine produces about
one fourth of all the copper used annually in the United States!

Sadly we chose the wrong day (week even) to go up into the hills to the visitors center.  Snow was predicted at higher elevations, and guess what... the mine is at a higher elevation.  So we spent most of our time in the visitors center watching videos and examining dioramas in order to avoid the absolute blizzard that was outside.

This was no simple snow-day.  See that snow falling HORIZONTALLY!
Pretty much a blizzard up there.

I really enjoyed the educational experience and had fun being with Stephanie while she was among her students and fellow teachers.  I was able to snag a couple of pictures looking down into the pit which is so deep you can't even see the bottom.... at least not in this storm.

  

yeah, it was cold.