It is with great enthusiasm to welcome you to IronMiners.com! This forum is a place for all of us to interact, learn and appreciate our great mining history. Are you related to a miner or are you a former miner yourself? Are you interested in industrial archeology? Do you collect mining artifacts or books?

We knew IronMiners wouldn't be complete without a forum to interact with other people with the same common interests. I hope you enjoy your stay on the site!

Miner Mike

Howdy Mike and Greg!
Chris showed me the site. Looks good! We're gonna have to get together sometime again (i think we should come down there) for a mission. Got my wheat lamp working good. if you remember the battery was dying last time in the PA tunnel.
anyway.. i'll keep watching for new stuff on the site. catch ya later

Banks

Hey Banks,

Great to hear from you -- I'm happy you like the site. Yes, we would like to invite you to some mines down our way so make sure you have a full charge of the ole' wheat lamp! We have visited more mines than we have posted on the site. It will just take time to photograph them thoroughly and obtain more vintage photos.

In a lot of ways the PA Tunnel reminded me of walking down the endless tunnel of the Hibernia Mine before '94 -- another straight tunnel that penetrates thousands of feet into the earth. We still have more pictures from those early adventures, just have to "dig" them up.

Miner Mike

Tunnel wise, I would say the two entrances to the mines are simular, but the actual mines are very different. The PA Tunnel is actually a drainage tunnel for the Underwood Mine. After entering the tunnel you will eventually meet up with the railroad and it keeps going and going. The PA Tunnel was not originally intended to be used for mining, it was originally a drainage tunnel. The Hibernia Underground Railroad tunnel was never used for mining either. Its unclear what it was originally drilled for, but it was eventually used as a train tunnel to haul the ore from the series of mines which it intersected.

I was comparing the PA Tunnel to the Hibernia Mine because they are both extremely long straight tunnels -- both share the experience of walking a straight tunnel with seemingly no end. Yes, there are many more diferences than similarities between the two and yes the workings are setup completely different.

Mike