Grade 5 & 6 Class Blog: Field Trip to Britannia Mine Museum

What a wonderful day!! Today was our first field trip of the year.
We went to Britannia Mine Museum, near Squamish, between Vancouver and Whistler. We arrived around 10 and had a few minutes to spare before our program started.

Here is Zach beside some mining cars.

Shortly after, we met our Tour Guide for the day, Michael. Everyone listened very attentively as we listened to how the day was going to go.

For some reason, he knew a few of the boys by name before we even left this spot....

This is one of the "small" mining trucks. The museum got it because it was too little. The company was buying a "real" truck. Two of these can fit in the bed of one of the trucks they use today!! Joseph looks pretty tiny on the wheel there!

Here we are in our hard hats ready to go into the mine.

And our trusty drivers who got us there and back safely today! Thank you, ladies! They were also our camera crew today!

After riding down the tracks, we got out of our "train" and explored some of the mine. Michael demonstrated three drills for us and showed us how the miners got rid of muck. He also turned out the lights and showed us how dark it was for miners when they only had candles to guide them.

Perfect Picture op underground.

We exited the mine, and got to hear the mine bell which use to mean a change in shift for the men at work. Now, they only use the bell for demonstrations or in an emergency.

In this building we learned how to process the rock and extract the minerals. We didn't get to climb up the 400 stairs to the top floor, but we did learn that originally the men climbed it without handrails and that you CAN get the opportunity to climb it if you volunteer at the mine!