Sarah Fox
Rossland News
Taking an interpretive tour at the Rossland Museum was the perfect way to kick off this year’s Golden City Days. Learning about Rossland’s rich history paints an admirable understanding of how this beautiful town originated and why it is celebrated.
The tour takes you on a nostalgic route through Rossland’s mining industry, allowing you to see the machinery and tools used during the gold mining days, from 1890 to 1929.
On the tour you can walk through an old Canadian Pacific railway cart and check out the historical buildings, including a replica of the mine office and superintendents office. There is also a warehouse and a geology building with a fascinating rock display. The tour is great for children because it involves a hands-on component, allowing you to touch and feel different rocks and tools, as well as do your own gold panning.
Other highlights include a chunk of a 373 year old cedar tree, a chair from Rossland’s first chairlift at Red Mountain, and a photograph of Columbia Ave. that has been identified to be taken sometime between 1893 and 1894.
In the past, the tour took you underground into Le Roi mine. This gave people the opportunity to experience the full effect of the environment miners were working in. The mine has since been announced unstable and underground tours stopped in 2009.
If you get the opportunity, check out the Rossland Museum for a fun and informative tour. They will be running from Wednesday to Sunday at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. until October 12. For all other purposes the Rossland Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m..