Museum of Mining

Ancient Artifacts - Gems & Minerals from All Over the World

See a wonderful display of Gems and Minerals from all over the world! A treat is in store for the visitor with an excellent collection of artifacts dating as far back as 700 A.D. The early ancient culture is represented in pottery, baskets, weaving and other items used by these early settlers in New Mexico.

In the spacious, galleried first floor of the museum, visitors can walk through the colorful history of the Grants/Cibola area, beginning with railroad, logging, ranching and uranium mining. It was uranium that brought the boom and bust cycle, and the now almost non-existent demand for U.S.-mined uranium has ended what many call the final bust.

In the mining industry, it's a fact of life and a philosophy: everything starts with a hole in the ground. Ask any miner from the earth-hardened veteran of twenty to thirty years underground to the rugged young roustabout with the razor cut hair style under his hard hat.

Uranium, coal, gold, silver, diamonds, copper and a myriad of other exotic metals, minerals and gems from the original hole in the ground are released to flow up and out in the world to become the wealth of nations.

Very few places in the world recreate the raw and often dangerous conditions of the hole in the ground re-created in Grants, New Mexico, in "one of the few Uranium Mining Museums in the World."

As visitors wind through "Section 26," posted informational panels detail the work and the equipment inside this underground world. The self-guided tour is a unique opportunity to see, touch, feel and absorb the atmosphere of the underground world, where thousands of men and women have worked to start the flow of power and wealth to the surface.

The self-guided tour allows you to view the mine at your own pace. Descend the "cage" to the mine shaft.; In a real mine, the descent could plunge down 900 feet or more, but our "Section 26" is just a short ride down, ending at the station where workers, materials and mine ore leave and enter the mine. Learn about the "lunchroom," drilling and blasting techniques and the forbidden "open stope."

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