Monument, CO - 10 Great Things to Do (Part 2)

Yesterday's number one place to visit, Garden of the Gods County Park, can be found here...Part 1

Today's number two place is:

2. The Western Museum of Mining Official Website
The museum is located in Colorado Springs, just across Interstate 25 from the Air Force Academy, on the Glen Eagle exit. Which puts it approx. 4 miles south of Monument, CO.

The museum offers many exhibits on mining and mining equipment. The exhibit that gets the most attention is the realistic mine. An old miner, himself, walks you thru the exhibit, where you'll see mining cars, mining tools, and mining gear. You'll even have a chance to go "down" into the mine. Where you'll see the coal on the walls of the mine.

While you might automatically think that miners were mining for gold or diamonds, the most common mineral to mine for, especially in Colorado, was coal. Many homes in America used coal for heat and some still do! In Colorado Springs, we have a coal fired steam plant in the downtown area that's providing electricity to our homes today. From most everywhere in Colorado Springs, when the weather conditions are right, you can see the steam billowing from the plant.

Coal trains up and down the front of the Rockies can be seen all through out the day! A very common site. On their way south, they are full of coal and move more slowly than when they are going back north.

The museum also has a nice collection of steam engines of all sizes. Many of them are vintage, turn of the century machines. And on the hour the staff starts up the biggest one. And it's loud. Some of the smaller ones, you can run yourself.

I highly recommend a vist to the museum if you're in the area of Monument, CO, 80132. It's guaranteed to enterain the kids.

Photo reproduced with permission courtesy of Matt Hannes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~