- And so what they would do is they would make a square section
and then blast that off.
And it would drop out a section as they were moving down
and creating a tunnel into the mine.
You find, again, it's like a time capsule.
So a lot of times people went to work
and they did their day's job.
They left their tools and their equipment
and their personal items and they went home.
The price of the ore dropped.
It was below what the managers could sustain the pumps.
So they didn't turn them back on.
They allowed the mine to fill up.
Then when the ore prices rose,
they would turn the pumps back on.
And then drain it out and go back to work.
It is really a time capsule.
A lot of times you find, you know,
the area where -- their lunch area.
Where they've just left their tools propped along the wall.
Helmets, we find piles of tallow candles.
So animal fat candles which have been left
and we're documenting those.
We're documenting even more parts of the state
in the southwestern part.
This last November, we were up in the Baraboo range
and we're looking at an iron mine which was there.
It's pristine.
It was left in 1913 and no one's been back since.