This is the first big mine I have ever come into contact with. I was walking and there was a lot of mining debris around a burnt out ore shart and a giant smelter across the street. These things did not surprise me so much, but when I came across the mine I got a little funny. I was excited by it and also super afraid of it or some creature that was going to crawl out and suck me in and that would be that. Well, not a creature but another human, who had made their home in the cool deep mountain. I'm a chicken. I could totally squeeze through the doors on the mine, but I didn't. I kept dancing around up and down, into the mouth out of the mouth, I felt very undecided about the whole matter. I feel really dumb, mining is apart of Montana and especially here no one is geeking out like I am.

Today I asked Debbie and Suzanne (they run the residency here) if I could go up the hill near the smelter and they said yes but be careful because it is crumbly. Then I asked, since there was an open mine under the smelter if I could go in it, since it was open and didn't have metal gates on it like the other mine I came across. That my friends was a dumb question and I knew it and they said that I shouldn't. But I want someone so badly to say, oh yeah sure go in, or oh yeah I'll take you in after breakfast, you buy me a cup of coffee and I'll bring a flashlight. I won't go in on my own, which is probably wise.

Have you ever read the House of Leaves? At one point in the book there is a door with a cavernous space behind it in the house. When I looked at the mine today with no doors I had this weird feeling of pulling and pushing from the space. This was the same feeling I imagined when I read that book about that space behind the door.

here are some links about Basin, the Montana Artists Refuge, and mining in Montana (disclaimer: I don't agree with everything on all of these sites but I find them interesting and have been looking at them all a lot)

http://www.montanapictures.net/basin_montana_pictures.htm

http://www.montanaartistsrefuge.org/index.htm

http://www.merrywidowmine.com/

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/MT-MerryWidowMine.html

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/MTBASradon.html

http://montanakids.com/agriculture%5Fand%5Fbusiness/mining/

http://www.campingmontana.com/Basin.asp