missouri mines state historic site

Interesting place, definitely worth exploring! Much of the history in this place I sadly overlooked so many times.

Located in one of the old St Joe Lead Mine buildings, this is a really neat museum with a very informative 15 minute movie that talks about the miners and mining operations, and extensive and beautiful mineral collection and a number of pieces of mining equipment. The displays do a great job of illustrating the unique geology of the area that results in the variety of natural mineral resources in Missouri and why this is called the Lead Belt. The ranger, Mark Hodges, went out of his way to explain the history of the site, the history of the mineral collection, the different buildings on site and their function, and how the area mines and towns all interacted and connected to each other. He was readily available for any questions and was very knowledgeable and a great resource. The property has a paved bike trail that connects to the loop trail at St Joe park. Overall, a very unique, educational and interesting place to visit. It would be better if more of the facility was accessible, but I suspect it is a work in progress.

We were recently in the area and went to view this site. We spent over two hours due to the Ranger's talk. I'm not complaining, in fact he was very knowledgeable and kept us entranced by his talk. Small children might be bored but as a history buff we found it very entertaining.

If you have any interest in mining, you will find this stop interesting. It is the site of an old mining operation and it has an excellent display of mining equipment that was used in this mine as well as stones and rocks from around the world. There is a short educational movie. Even though I am not from MO, mining has been a very important part of the history of this part of MO. The host can tell me more than you ever hope to know about mining. Mining is certainly not one of the things that I find on my "intrigue" list, but my husband found this very entertaining and eductional. The site is very clean and well maintained.

We made a special trip to see this site and arrived on a Thursday in late March to find it closed. I did check online and didn't see that the hours were limited in the off season

This shows you how all the men from the area worked in this underground mine. They used to wear a little flame on their hard hats, way back before they got the light on them.I heard Tom Selleck used to do dives down in the mines. To scary for me! But if your looking for some interesting history check it out. My uncles used to work there, played a big part in lung problems for most of the workers. They sacaficed a lot.