Saturday, September 12, 2015

Mining diorama finds new home at Papago Park museum

The giant diorama of an open pit mine that was a feature of the former Arizona
Mining & Mineral Museum in Phoenix, has found a new home at the Arizona Historical Society's Papago Park Museum.  

A grand opening of a new mining gallery is planned for mid-November.

Volunteers Bob Mertz and Larry Dykers briefed the Arizona Mining Alliance luncheon meeting  in Tucson on Friday, showing pictures of the reconstruction of the diorama currently underway.

The diorama has been in storage since the former mining museum closed in 2011 in preparation for conversion to a centennial museum, but funding never materialized and the building remains empty and closed.

The diorama has a number of interactive stations for visitors to see every aspect of mining.  The display is built to HO train scale.


1 comment:

  1. The AHS threw the diorama out of the mineral / centennial museum becasue it did not 'fit the theme of the museum". How does it fit the theme of the Papago Park Museum?

    ReplyDelete