Sumpter Museum And Public Library
The Sumpter Museum is just half a block down from the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area and complements the park with displays of mining in the Sumpter Valley Area. While a relatively small building, the museum is full of donated mining artifacts, mineral specimens, and archival documents. Displays cover hydraulic mining, load mining, and, of course, dredging. A hard rock mining diorama includes an ore cart and assorted mining equipment. A collection of large copies include blueprints of a dredge, granting and architect’s eye view of these massive mining machines.
Kerbyville Historical Museum
Kerbyville Historical Museum offers a rare glimpse into the history of Josephine County, Oregon. Exhibits span the culture of the local Takelma Tribe, timber industry, Illinois Valley pioneer settlers, and local gold mining history.
Museum of the West
The Museums of Western Colorado are a collection of museums covering history, farming, paleontology, and most importantly, mining in Colorado. The Museum of the West displays the core collection. Along with a stage coach and a replica boomtown bar, the museum sports a replica mine and mining artifacts.
May 2016 Review
May 2016 experienced a striking decrease in staked claims (102) compared to May 2015 (993). This is paired with an uptick in abandoned claims (283) to result in a month with a net decrease of 280 mining claims. Box Elder, Utah stands out with 296 abandoned claims this month—compared to 382 abandoned claims in all of the…
Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum
Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum1310 Maple St.Golden, Colorado 80401 HoursMonday – Saturday: 9AM – 4PMSunday: 1 – 4PM AdmissionFree The Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum boasts the largest collection of Colorado mineral specimens housed in a slick, well curated, 2-story wing on the Colorado School of Mines campus. Notable in the museum’s collection…
La Grange Mine
On a pullout from Highway 299 in Trinity County is the largest hydraulic mine in California. Little remains of the operation aside from a monitor and four interpretive displays. Yet, the La Grange Mine looms large in gold mining history.
DeWitt Museum
The DeWitt Museum is housed in the original 1910 two-story Prairie City Depot building. While much of the museum preserves the historic depot waiting room, station agent’s office, baggage and express room, and freight office, the second floor also houses displays highlighting local history. The collection includes mining artifacts, rocks, minerals, and photographs from the turn of the century.
Big Brutus
Big Brutus lives up to its name. The massive Bucyrus-Erie model 1850-B electric shovel is so large it was abandoned at the location of its final use. Indeed, it was the second largest of its kind in the 1960s and 1970s and the largest shovel still in existence—16 stories tall with a 150-foot long boom and weighing in at 11 million pounds. The dipper can fill three railroad cars with its 90-cubic-yard capacity. It is less of a surprise that the shovel was abandoned, despite the $6.2 million price tag back in 1962, when one learns that it can only move at .22 MPH.
Western Mining & Railway Museum
The Western Mining & Railway Museum follows the story of local coal miners from 1880 to 1950. Located in the small town of Helper, Utah, the Western Mining & Railway Museum splits its 3 floor brick structure between commemorating the region’s mining and railroad history. Maps, mining artifacts, and pictures reveal the every-day lives of local coal miners and the town that grew around their work.
National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum
National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum tells the story of mining, its people, and its importance to the American public.