Skip to main content

Coal mine

I have always been drawn to the strange and unusual, especially when it involves venturing off the highway onto back roads with the promise of an adventure.  On the way back from Youngest's college orientation, we found ourselves in Beckley, West Virginia at a McDonald's.  This was not our first choice, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.  While we were enjoying our fine dining experience, my eyes were drawn to this sign that was just visible from where we were sitting.  When we finished eating, I couldn't leave without a photo.  To my astonishment, Hubster asked if I wanted to visit the exhibit.  After I picked my jaw off the floor of the car, I responded "sure".
With no more than that arrow pointing the way, we set off into the wilds of West Virginia.  Youngest swore he heard the sound of banjos.  After several miles of twists and turns,  I was beginning to think that we had missed a sign.To my relief, a sign appeared letting us know that we had arrived at the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine.
Visitors enter the company store to purchase tickets for the mine tour and exhibits.  In the country store building, there is a gift shop and displays.  On the grounds surrounding the store are actual mining company buildings that were torn down and reassembled piece by piece on the museum grounds.  These buildings include the Superintendent's home, the company school, a church, a miner's shack, and a miner's family home.  Displays in each of the buildings give an intimate glimpse of life in the camp.
The highlight of the museum for me was the trip into an actual coal mine.  I can't even imagine the conditions that miners worked under, but the tour helped us understand just a bit.  A retired miner leads the tour and tells about working in the mines.  Antique and modern equipment is demonstrated along the route.  The conditions that miners work in are terrible under the best of circumstances.

During the tour, the guide pointed out what he called a kettle bottom. An example is shown below.  Kettle bottoms are fossilized trees.  When the miners have blasted out the rock below, the smooth sided "trees" would be freed and would drop on unsuspecting miners below--often killing or seriously injuring them.

All in all, it was an interesting stop and well worth the delay to our travels.  It certainly gave me more understanding of the hardships experienced by miners.  It also made me thankful for my job.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by my little piece of the web. I look forward to reading what you have to say!

Popular posts from this blog

CiteBlue

I have been enjoying participating in the MSU College of Law Social Media Contest . I have learned (and am still learning) a lot. Because of my activity, I have been able to connect with organizations and people that I would never have come across without social media. For this introvert, it has been like opening a whole new world. (I know, most people would never guess that I am an introvert; they probably just think that I am a snob. In social settings, I am a complete misfit, but put me in front of a classroom or conference room and I shine. It is strange, I know, but that is me. Perhaps we will dissect that in a different post). It has been interesting to see what posts attract followers. It has also been eye opening to figure out that followers also appear with an agenda--for example, some follow hoping to be followed in return to build their own group. This week, a company called CiteBlue "followed" me on Twitter. I wasn't familiar with the company, so I clicked o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Queen of the Dairy

Did you know that the Dairy Queen Blizzard turned 25 last year?  I remember when the Blizzard was introduced which makes me officially...old.  Anyway, there was no Dairy Queen in the town where I grew up but there was one where my great grandfather lived.  Do you remember when a trip longer than 15 minutes lasted fuh evah?  When I was little, the 65 minute drive to my great grandfather's small town felt like an eternity.  Maybe it felt so long  because  I was hoping for that extremely rare occurrence of a stop at the Dairy Queen.  My parents were teachers  and the budget was always tight, but occasionally we would stop at DQ and we could get a small cone.  We never got to choose--it was always just that small vanilla cone, but it was a treat nonetheless. Once I was able to drive and had a job, those stops at DQ were almost mandatory when I ventured on my own to my grandparents house.  I probably tried something different each time-...
2 comments
Read more

What is that Binocular Button anyway?

Sometimes we get so busy doing our jobs that we fail to take the time to learn more about the tools that we use everyday.  For alarm administrators, that tool is often CryWolf® or another similar program. Once I had discovered the Text Select tool, I began looking at other items on the tool bar.  In doing so, I found that clicking on the Binocular Button at the top right of a report (red arrow to the left) opens a search box.  This makes sense because the binocular button is officially called the Find Text tool.  To find what you are looking for, simply enter the word or number that you want to locate in the "Find What:" box (blue arrow below). If you want to limit the search, click on the search parameters boxes (green arrow below). Click the Search button (red arrow below) and the magic begins. In no time at all, the results of the search will be displayed in the results box (circled in black below).  Here, the sample shows that I searched for t...
Post a Comment
Read more