Meet Christine!

The Colorado Mining and Industrial Museum, located just north of Colorado Springs, Co, along I-95,  promotes the value of above and below ground mining when done safely for all concerned, including healthy long term effects on the environment.  And one of the museum's strongest mine promoters is the woman who was our guide today.

Meet Christine!

 Christine's hour long tour of the indoor displays at the museum include a 20 minute movie about many kinds of modern mining in Colorado.

But its the hands-on machinery that she and the other guides turn on for us to hear and see operate that makes the show. And all of it is at least 100 years old.

From hammering air drills to the big Corliss Engine she runs with compressed air from lines throughout the museum she keeps her charges well informed and well entertained.

Christine doesn't just speak machinery either.  She knows how to speak CHILD

From teaching us all how to pan for gold (gold is mustard colored, Fool's Gold is the shiny stuff).

To letting the kids push buttons to make things 'GO' Christine made a lasting great impression on everyone!

The museum has lots outside to see too, like big and little train engines, diggers, and a full working mill, the Yellowjacket, which was moved and restored from its original mine site in the mountains nearby.

 And what would any attraction trying to get the attention of children be without some cute furry beasties around?

Like BURROS!

Of course, at this museum the burros are actually two of the regular working staff as they are used on special weekends throughout the year to illustrate the value of the mule and its cousin, the burro, to the history of mining the world over.

But the kids and I just enjoyed watching them be cute, furry, burros.

 -Ken

PS: no pics of Mona in this museum.  She soaked up the first rays of sunshine we've had in over two days and read outside while I followed Christine all over the museum.

PPS: The coach is mechanically ship-shape and we head out tomorrow for East Colorado and the tiny town of Kit Carson.  The town my Great Aunt Ella's family homesteaded to in the 1890's, and the town where they lived after losing the farm.