Students profit from mock mine

Saturday, April 22, 2000 | 9:22 a.m.

It's nearly noon. The sun beats down on the backs of the explorers' necks and heats the desert floor. The wind kicks up dust. Next to the mountain, a group of explorers pan for gold in a water-filled trough. The more experienced miners coach them.

"Swirl the water," an expert advises. "Gently. Gently."

Holding a rubber pan filled with water, a cautious miner sways the pan back and forth, swirling its contents until a gold fleck appears in the sand.

He pauses, squints his eyes, dabs the gleaming particle with his finger, then carefully pulls it out and releases it into a small plastic bag. His panning complete, he skips away.

In tennis shoes and colorful clothes, these novice prospectors are hardly the grizzly, unshaven men who combed the West more than 100 years ago staking claims on prosperous gold mines. They're elementary students bused on a morning field trip to Gordon McCaw Elementary School in Henderson.

In the back yard of the school, just beyond the playground, looms the 4,600-square-foot "Jewel of the Desert Mine."

Since its dedication four years ago the mock mine, filled with memorabilia and equipment used in Nevada mines, has treated more than 14,000 students to an educational journey through Nevada's mining history.

Originally envisioned as a papier-mache model to be built in the back of a fourth grade classroom, the $1.5 million project has evolved over the years to become a source of pride for students and staff at McCaw and an ongoing project for members of the community.

More than 400 businesses and individuals have contributed to the effort, including a local architecture firm that with the help of the students designed and led the construction of the mine.

Mining memorabilia -- ore carts, antique barrels, mucking machines and an authentic cage used to lower miners to the depths of the caverns -- have been collected by members of the community and donated from mining companies throughout the state. These include items from the now defunct Bristol Mine near Pioche.

A turn-of-the-century stamp mill, used to crush ore, was reconstructed by volunteers using parts donated by a retired miner. More recently, volunteers from the the Road Sprinkler Fitters Local 669 installed the sprinkler system using donated materials from eight local companies.

Everything has been donated, all the way down to the cactus on the property, Janet Dobry, the school's principal, said. "The project has just snowballed."

Representatives from the Division of Minerals and different mining companies, many who know the students on a first-name basis, make frequent visits to the school.

"Mining is extremely important to the state -- a lot of people don't realize that," said volunteer Dale Anderson, a retired engineer who helped design projects at the site.

Nevada is home to 30 gold and silver mines and dozens of other mines, including gypsum, limestone and barite, and is the country's largest gold and silver producing state.

In 1864 the rich deposits of gold and silver prompted President Abraham Lincoln to push to make Nevada a state. The Comstock Lode was used to finance the Civil War and mining towns sprouted throughout the state.

This is why fourth grade teachers Rick Rogers and Janet Bremmer, who teach mining as a part of Nevada history curriculum at McCaw, decided to create a model of a mining.

The telltale sign that the mining spirit has infiltrated the school is found in the students.

"I just love mining," says fifth grader Michelle Cain with her hands clasped against her chest. The fresh-faced 11-year-old is one of many students who serve as tour guides through the mine and have taken a keen interest in the industry.

When the idea for creating the mine surfaced, Bill Snyder of Tate and Snyder architects insisted on student participation, Dorothy Webb, tour coordinator at the mine, said.

"Our foundation will help 100 percent but we want the kids involved," she added.

Student handiwork is all over the project. Students participated in the original design of the mine. They wrote letters asking for money and materials, wrote captions of the storyboards, painted the mine's exterior and participated in a student-made video about the mine.

Today they attend annual fund-raising dinners, contribute mining memorabilia and serve as tour guides.

In a T-shirt and shorts, Rebecca Estrella, a fifth grader at the school, leads her last group of the day into the mine's tunnel. The school gives tours four or five days a week.

"I started working here when I was in the third grade," Estrella said. "I love the rocks. I love the fossils. I love everything."

For this she is missing math and reading. Fourth and fifth grade students at the school have the opportunity to give tours of the mine, as long as they agree to make up any work they have missed.

The mine has done a lot more for them than teaching them about mining, Rogers said. "Not only do they learn about it but they get a chance to share it with the other kids."

The exterior is built to look like a mountain. Mining exhibits and artifacts are used to explain stories of past and present mining techniques. Timber supports called "sets" keep mines from caving in. Train tracks carry the ore carts.

As Estrella leads a group into the equipment room, her favorite area of the mine -- where dynamite boxes, pans, scales and gas head lanterns are displayed -- she explains the old canary technique used to warn miners of poison gas. If the canary dies there is gas in the air. The self-rescue kit, used to provide oxygen in such an incident, is her favorite piece of equipment.

In the corner of the room a wooden model of square set stoping used in the Comstock Lode in Virginia City is on display.

The product room is filled with core samples taken from Nevada Mines and a large model of an open-pit mine.

The geology room features fossils -- most of them found in Nevada -- including that of a Trilobite from Cambrian Period, 500 million to 699 million years ago. Stones, such as moss agate, Green Rhyolite and Nevada Jade surround the display.

The new Visitor Center features a model of the mill at the Cortez Mine in Beowawe, a town east of Battle Mountain.

Volunteers from the local organization, the Gold Searchers of Southern Nevada, assist in the tours and provide the gold panning experience where students discover and take home four flecks of real gold.

By the end of the tour, students have a broad perspective of mining, Dobry said.

The McCaw School of Mines Foundation pays bus transportation that brings students to and from the mine.