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Greg and John's fabulous adventure in and around Thunder Bay, Ontario, July 2002
Part Two: The Shuniah Mine
GO TO:
Part One: The Ontario Gem Amethyst Mine
| This is the road cut along the main highway. The mine is about a kilometer behind this. We originally were directed to it by a kindly geologist who stopped while we were collecting a little amethyst from the pockets in the basalt of the road cut. He told us there was an old silver mine back in the woods about half a mile. 
Here we go! Up the hill just to the right
of the car
and into the woods to the trail we go. Greg's on the trail of some good rocks!
Prettiness and wildlife along the trail to
the mine!
And not just a grouse but a porqupine! This
guy ambled
out in front of us, then got a little |
| Greg starts to dig in to the mine dump. This was a silver mine, shut down in the late 1800's. The shaft went down a thousand feet. The piles of rock from the shaft are full of interesting specimens, including fluorite, silver ore (acanthite), calcite, amethyst and sulfide minerals. The dumps cover an area about 0.5 km long and 0.25 km wide. We've just begun to explore! 
Getting to the root of the problem.
Finished for the day. This night the
temperature was
95 degrees F. at 8 PM!
|
| The Sleeping Giant - A long peninsula east of Thunder Bay. Off the end of this structure is Silver Isle, site of the largest and most famous silver mine in the area. The mine is (and mostly was) underwater. When it was in operation timber dams filled with rock kept the waters of Superior out... for a while. The battering of the winter storms tore them apart time after time.  |
| A few of the beauties of the mine 
|
Beautiful
Minerals
Museum
Links to my
favorite
on-line Rock Shops
Up in a
tree! 
