LANDER, Wyo. (AP) – After nearly a decade of reconstruction, the Carissa Gold Mine is coming back to life for all to see, with the grand opening scheduled for Sunday near the South Pass City State Historic Site south of Lander.

The tours are free and run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Though tours of the Carissa have been offered in the past, Sunday marks the public’s first chance to see the mine’s newly installed, fully functional equipment—50 tons of steel that wasn’t there before—in action, operating at an ear-splitting 100 to 130 decibels.

“The period of restoration we’re looking at is post-World War II,” site curator Jon Lane said. “1946 through 1949 is the era where the mine and mill last ran three eight-hour shifts round the clock.”

Around that time, the Carissa was said to be capable of processing 100 tons of ore daily, though it probably milled closer to 60 tons per day—producing around 16 ounces of gold, Lane said. An estimated 50,000 to 180,000 ounces of gold came out of the Carissa before it closed permanently in 1954.

When the Carissa closed, four essential pieces of equipment, the ball mill, spiral classifier, mineral jig and whiffling table, were sold.

“When you close, you generally liquidate your property to pay your bills, to pay your employees,” Lane said.

In 2009, the Wyoming Legislature provided funding to replace the missing pieces.

Equipment was sourced from vendors of outdated or antique equipment throughout the Rocky Mountain West, Lane said. The crew even managed to locate the same whiffling table that was removed from the mine half a century ago.

But the installation of that machinery represents only the final touch in an ongoing process. Working with the federal Abandoned Mine Lands project and the Wyoming Historic Mine Trail initiative, the South Pass Historic Site began a series of renovations and restorations after the state’s purchase of the Carissa in 2003.

The challenge since then has been to balance the goal of maintaining the site’s historical integrity with the practical concerns associated with taking the public into an almost 150-year-old excavation containing working heavy machinery.

“The work that began about 10 years ago, right after the purchase, was looking at the mine hazards—open shafts—you know, where there’s a giant hole in the ground and you throw the pebble and you never hear it hit the bottom,” Lane said.

Open shafts either were fenced off or sealed with removable foam. Structural stabilization followed, along with precautionary measures to ensure that chemical hazards would be contained.

The water and other materials run through the mill will be recirculated and self-contained.

“We’re not discharging or releasing anything into the environment,” Lane said. “We’re keeping everything within that building.”

The development of the plumbing and electrical systems required some creativity. Modeled after 1946 systems, these systems needed to comply with modern safety standards.

“We’re not dealing with 1946 construction codes or electrical codes,” Lane said.

This meant implementing some “hybrid systems,” he said, “armored electrical cable, for example, as opposed to the two live wires stapled to the surface of the wood.

“You’ve got your full functionality and safety of the modern 21st century, but it blends in or is camouflaged well within the architecture of the building and the design of the systems themselves,” Lane said.

Lights came on in the Carissa last year for the first time since the mine’s closure.

Another safety measure was the addition of stair rails, which were not present when the mine was in use.

“We know historically they were open stairways, because the people who we had a chance to interview that worked there said their number-one and number-two issues were electrocution because of bad wiring in 1946, and then falling down stairs because there weren’t any railings,” Lane said.

Although the interior resembles the mine’s 1946 appearance, the exterior and layout resemble that of 1929.

After Sunday’s grand opening, the mine will be open for public tours Saturday and Sunday afternoons beginning Aug. 24, lasting into the fall and winter as weather permits. The later tours will cost $2 per person for Wyoming residents and $4 for nonresidents. Admission for children under 18 is free. Group size is capped at about 25 people per tour.

Tours are also provided for free to educational groups. Touring the Carissa requires the navigation moderately narrow staircases

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Information from: The (Riverton, Wyo.) Ranger, http://www.dailyranger.com

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-08-15-13 1634GMT

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PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. (AP) – The Phoenix of Egyptian and Greek mythology was a magnificent bird that was reborn from its own ashes.

The Phoenix of Phoenixville and Chester County reality was an iron works from which arms for armies, rails for railroads, backbones for bridges, and myriad more products for industrial and domestic uses were crafted.

The Phoenix Iron Works went cold a half-century ago. But from its ashes is a gem of a park and heritage center that is symbolic of the renaissance of the town around it.

Phoenixville’s lively main street is lined with an ever-increasing roster of shops and restaurants. And just off that street is a lasting memorial and lovely monument to the natural and man-made qualities that contributed to its growth.

The Phoenixville Foundry is a conference, reception and event space within the restored walls of a circa 1882 Phoenix Iron and Steel Co. building.

It has been configured to reveal original truss work beneath a 60-foot-high ceiling of the main ballroom. A staircase winds up to the Cupola Mezzanine, and the layout is decorated with artifacts, murals and photographs from the days when the foundry was in full blast.

The largest of those artifacts is the massive, restored Wooden Jib Crane. It is believed to be the last piece of equipment of its kind in the country. It was one of four cranes that off-loaded massive forms that were sent to build railroads, buildings and bridges.

For “A Day Away” purposes, the attraction of The Foundry is its fascinating “Schuylkill River Heritage Center” in the foyer of the event spaces.

After the steel mill closed in 1987, most of the buildings on the 130 acres it consumed were demolished. The Foundry Building survived a decade of decay—just barely.

It was eventually deemed to be one of the “most endangered buildings in Pennsylvania.” And former Gov. Tom Ridge said it should be restored and house a museum that would pay tribute to the industrial history of the Schuylkill River Valley.

Chester County allocated $5.2 million that would ensure that the building would be a part of the county’s heritage and the town’s revival.

A visit to the Schuylkill River Heritage Center will begin with a walk through the Symbols of Steel Sculpture Garden. Those peculiar columns in the garden are “Phoenix Columns,” a type of bar that was widely used in construction projects here and abroad.

Inside the Heritage Center, visitors’ attention will be to the floor and an imaginative map of the Schuylkill River, its towns and tributaries. A similar map can be found on the back wall.

Several display cases hold historical items from the mill, its workers and the town of Phoenixville. And on one of the walls is an impressive, entertaining and educational array of photographs and postcards that depict bridges and structures built with Phoenix Columns.

Some of them remain, some are long gone:

• The “Phenix Wheel” from the 1895 Atlanta Cotton Exposition. A ride inspired by George Ferris’s wheel in Chicago, Phenix Wheels were built at Coney Island and on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, N.J. The Asbury Park wheel is under restoration in Phoenixville.
• The Cape May, N.J., Pier; the Heinz Pier in Atlantic City; and the Long Branch, N.J., pier—all victims of hurricanes.
• Philadelphia Water Works: Phoenix Columns were used to support the machinery in the buildings that still stand at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
• The Washington Monument: The staircase and elevator shafts are supported by Phoenix Columns.
• Strawberry Mansion Bridge: Built for trolleys in 1896, the 832-foot-long bridge now carries traffic over the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
• Kinzua Viaduct: The original 2,052-foot long railroad bridge that soared more than 300 feet over the valley was the highest bridge in the world when it was built. It was removed and rebuilt in 1900.

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Online:

http://bit.ly/13CsW0v

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Information from: Reading Eagle, http://www.readingeagle.com/

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-08-15-13 1356GMT

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