Diary (June 5, 2020)
Online diary of Karl Jones for Friday June 5, 2020.
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Diary
Miner's Lake
Explored Miner's Lake for the first time this morning. Impressive!
Steve Cobian and I biked East out of Ely and looped back around the West side of town. We originally set out for Winton, but missed the Winton trail and decided to go around the lake instead.
Which is fine: Miner's Lake is the thing, the entire reason Ely exists. Before mining there was no lake, no valley. Starting in the 1880s, five mines were dug in succession over the twentieth century, creating the Miner's Lake of today.
We got a remarkable mine museum tour! I mean the tour was remarkable, and the mine museum is remarkable.
One of the five mines remains, partially preserved: the Progress Mine, where Steve met the groundskeeper and museum-builder Seraphine Ronaldo (!), who was effusive about telling the story of Miner's Lake generally and the Progress Mine specically. TO DO, follow up with him, interview, publicity campaign to obtain ongoing support to preserve and promote Progress Mine.