One of my 37 Goals is to see new things. While I was in Utah I wanted to do things that I'd never done while living there. So visiting Kennecott was at the top of my list. I lived at the base of this mine for over 20 years and never got up there to see it. (I think that I tried one time, but they were closed.) In fact, most of the families that lived on my street worked at the mine or for them in some way.
When I lived in Riverton, the waste rock that was dumped over the side of the mine was mostly only in the center part of what it looks like today. The mine has taken over about 20 towns. And though I have mixed feelings about the effects of open pit mining, I must admit that I think it looks kind of beautiful. The many colors of rock and dirt look nice against the colors of the desert.
P.S. This is the view (above) from my parents' back yard. Pretty impressive.
The pit is 3/4 mile deep. It can be seen from space. The mine produces more copper than any other on earth. They also produce gold, silver, and a few other ores as waste products. Those dark specks? Those are giant dump trucks.
Luckily, our visit overlapped with Karl's visit, so he came with us. It was kind of breezey.
The kids liked looking through the binoculars.
at these giant trucks. A grown man isn't even half as tall as one of the tires on those giant machines. Each dump truck can haul 340 TONS of rock!
Next time you are in Utah, this is a pretty cool place to go. The movie they show in the visitor's center is really interesting as well. I wish they had tours in the other parts of the mining operations (the smelter and refinery parts) It looked cool on the video. I think I'd like to go again!
I admit that for all the years we lived in and also visited Utah, I've never even thought of visiting the mines. Do they take school trips there?
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ReplyDeletethat was a fun trip. this sunday i was reading grandma kerksiek's life history (short, only like 14 pages) and she mentions a time when she and grandpa were dating. They drove to the new mining tunnel that connected the interior of the mine with the smelting plant. Then she said she and grandpa just started walking down in for like 20 minutes. I guess back in the 40s or some time like that. They eventually turned around, but the more I read through some of this stuff the more I can see that grandpa was super impulsive. Funny.
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