I went to Sudbury earlier today. I enjoy the 3.5 to 4 hour drive to get there. This time, i decided to go back to the Big Nickel. The last time I was there, was back in 1980. Back then, it was geared towards the coin collector with a small coin souvenir shop, a train that went around the property that could carry around 50 people, and several large coins. I do recall the Big Nickel, and also a large penny, and another coin with John F Kennedy on one side. All of these were very large. I also recall that there was a mine one could explore...but at the time, we didn't go down because it cost too much. Well I figured I would fix that and go visit everything the site offered...
Well what I pulled up to was nothing like the old coin park I remembered. It looks like sometime in the 90s or 00s, the site was sold to Science North, and it became Dynamic Earth. The focus is no longer on coins, but that of geology. I guess that makes sense seeing that Sudbury is renown for their rich Nickel mining heritage.
Thus, I encountered an old memory...but not quite, as now the Big Nickel stands on 2 pillars as opposed to the rich stone base I remember as a kid. Likewise, its location, no, the whole area is no longer recognizable to me. I was a bit disappointed with that, however, the new building and attractions more than made up for my initial sense of loss.
Here we are looking from the parking lot at the Big Nickel and the Dynamic North building on its immediate right.
Getting closer...I noticed the base is all wrong...well at least as I remembered it.
Well at least the coin remains the same.
There was a plaque to commemorate the private citizen who founded and created the park.
One more last look at the Big Nickel before heading into the building.
Meet the Dynamic Earth building...or at least, part of its decorations.
Inside, you are greeted by plenty of minerals, rocks, and other geological materials.
Here is a view from inside the building at the Inco Super Stack.
If you are wondering why it is called the Super Stack...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inco_SuperstackThere were many little displays inside Dynamic Earth.
Down in the basement, there was a neat little interactive story telling of the city of Sudbury's history. It was told with plenty of high tech equipent, etc. All told from the perspective of a digitized and animated barber. This was the entry to the show.
After the well produced high tech multimedia show, it was time to go underground. Now this blew my socks off, and I do apologize for my poor camera. I only brought my point and shoot with limited controls. The mine tour starts off in a miner's dry, where the miner's would hang their clothing to dry. Next was an elevator that had a 45 person capacity. The elevator only descends 20 meters, but that trip will take you 5 minutes, as the elevator shaft contains more videos and audio, which everyone could see through the glass walls of the elevator. Here, you can see two of the screens attached to the far wall of the largish elevator shaft.
Once down, everyone wears hard hats. Here is our tour guide telling up about some of the history of the Sudbury area mining before we enter the mine proper.
Here we are in the airlock which ensures the mine climate and that of the building can be equalized. Humidity was only at 77%. We were told it can get as high as 98% in the summer.
The mine was rather long, and broken down into different eras. You start off with the old style and work your way to the modern mine. Interspersed along the way are exhibits. It was rather interesting.
Here we are entering the oldest part of the mine showing the construction of the late 1800's. Happy to have that hardhat, as I am 6 feet, and the mine height in spots was 5'5" in spots.
Here is the old mine section.
Our tour guide is explaining some of the difficulties miners had in removing ore from the mine.
An older style drill.
Here we are in a more modern section of the mine, going from one display to another. It was dark, dank, and rather cool in the mine.
Our tour guide is explaining how mine blasting is done. She is putting a way a pair of dummy CIL dynamite sticks in this photo. The best part, they have the area rigged with super loud hidden speakers that simulate an actual blasting sequence. It did feel like I was there. Quite the visceral experience.
In the modern part of the mine, here is a safety room, which the miners would also use as their lunch room during a work shift. In an emergency, the miners would get into the room, close and lock the door via a lever, use clay to seal the door from gases, open an Oxygen valve, and await rescue.
Here is a photo showing the modern section of the mine.
The tour was very interesting, and took about an hour or so to finish. Here is a photo of the final walk to the exit of the tour. This long tunnel leads back to the air lock, and ultimately to the hard hat repository room and the elevator. Those white lights on the left of the photo were back-lite mining images.
After visiting Dynamic Earth, I got a better appreciation of mining, the geological history of the Sudbury area, and a deeper appreciation of what it would feel like to be a miner...not something I could do day in and day out. I was ready to call it a day until I spied an off shoot gallery centered around King Tutankhamun.
I knew they were featuring an Egyptian archaeological film in their cinema...which I didn't attend due to time constraints...but I am glad I took the time to explore this gallery.
And here is a little more info on Dynamic Earth.
http://sciencenorth.ca/dynamic-earth/exhibits/ 
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