The Year of Copper

For many of you who may not know, 7 year anniversary is the year of the Copper. In celebration of our COPPER anniversary, Justin decided we would do it in Copper style by visiting the largest copper mine in the country. Yes, we went to Kennecott Copper mines in Utah. It was so much fun. We loved taking the boys, they loved the digging trucks and all the dirt.

Here are some fun stats:
Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history - about 17 million tons.
The mine is 2-1/2 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine.
The mine is so big, it can be seen by the space shuttle astronauts as they pass over the United States.
By 2015, the mine will be at least 500 feet deeper than it is now.
If you stretched out all the roads in the open pit mine, you'd have 500 miles of roadway - enough to reach from Salt Lake City to Denver.

Brayden loved the digging trucks- They were HUGE!
Crazy enough, this is what we learned:
The trucks that haul the ore are larger than many houses and weigh more than a jumbo jet. They stand over 23 feet tall and can carry from 255 to 360 tons of rock.
The truck driver rides about 18 feet above the ground -- nearly two stories high.
Each tire on these big trucks costs from $18,000 to $26,000 and lasts just 9 months.

We recommend it to anyone, especially those of you with little boys who love to dig!