11/12/2025
Last week we had the pleasure of giving a tour for students from Holy Spirit Catholic School. They learned about the variety of animals that worked in the coal mines here - mules and horses to pull carts full of coal, and canaries, mice and dogs to alert for dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. Jokes about it being a regular zoo underground were made, and then one young man asked if we had had caiman underground? Sadly no. It's just too cold and dry here, even underground, for small reptiles - coal miners had a hard enough time keeping tiny island birds alive much less little alligators!
This can of Magic Song Restorer canary food from the 1920's or 1930's is from the collection and currently on display in the Coal Room.
RSHM 2010.057.0009
