Ooh, that's a cool one. I love the wooden structures, especially. They look so rickety!
Yeah, you would think that after a few mine and mill explosions, that they would have found a viable way to filter dust from the air. Besides making it less likely to destroy your business and kill your workers, it would have made working inside a lot more comfortable. I imagine workers could barely speak after a day's work, breathing that in.
I would love to see the mines up north. Apparently, the tour includes taking the elevator down the shaft to see where miners would have pulled ore from the ground. I'd do it, for sure, but it might be hard to find someone unafraid of heights to go with.
Too bad I live in Canada!! I'm unafraid of heights and would totally go! Going in the mine is probably a neat experience and probably a bit rare because of cave ins and poor support from the times they were built, plus now regulations require abandoned mines to blow up all entry ways to prevent public access and that makes it a pain in the ass to excavate for tours later, well at least for Canada. You should go check it out while it's still there!
Funny that you called the structure rickety, that's the exact word I used when I first saw it too...lol...I still can't believe a actually went inside that rickety old thing!! Went in the shaft leading to the mine too, there is one long conveyor belt but it was too dark to take pics, we all had the old carbide headlamps they used at the time, they are pretty heavy. I don't regret it tho it was fun.
They don't learn anything unless industry standards forces them to. Caring about workers cost $$ out of shareholder's pockets. Should see the coal power plants I work at. Years of coal dust sitting on all the beams and structures just keeps piling on, was there when I started working over a decade ago! We use it a "juice" to go handrail gliding homer simpson style(the dust makes the gloves less sticky). Every time I walk around there, I'm just waiting for the same to happen there any day and hope I'm not on that shift! Sad state of affairs. Yet safety goes overboard on dumb things.