Kennecott Copper Mine

We've decided to take advantage of a few cool, cheap family activities here in good ole Utah. This day, we decided to take the kids to the Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. Kate thought it was cool, but Jack LOVED it! There's a small little visitor's center, but you get to look down and see all the action going on in the giant pit. It's pretty cool. Here are some other cool facts:

* 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.
* The giant electric shovels in the mine can scoop up as much as 98 tons in a single bite -- about the weight of 50 cars.
* The newest shovels each cost $8 million and weigh 2.5 million pounds.
* 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.