The slice from PBS North.

How did high energy physics research end up at the Soudan Underground Mine?

Doctor Marvin Marshak is a physicist and instructo at the University of Minnesota, and he was looking in the early 1980s.

He was looking for a place to do his high energy experiments.

High energy physics experiments.

And the reason he wanted to do them underground is because you reduce your cosmic radiation significantly, so it doesn't muddy up your detectors.

And he had been traveling to Colorado and traveling to Montana and his wife, who was pregnant with their third child, said, Marvin, you you need to stick around closer to home.

What about that?

What about that mine?

We toured in northeast, that state park.

We toured in northeastern Minnesota, and a light went off and Marvin said that again, the perfect place to d high energy physics experiments.

Major reduction of cosmic radiation.

Not an active mine, but a mine that was still accessible.

And so many many projects have gone on here.

But the two major projects that happened were the Minos project, which is the main injector neutrino oscillation search that was done in conjunction with Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, and then CDMS, which is the cryogenic dark matter search.

And we still do offer tours of those spaces.

The detectors themselves hav been decommissioned and removed, but those physicists left us enough stuff that we give a phenomenal, phenomenal science tour.

It is so inspiring for young minds.

And if physics isn't your thing, there is a huge mural that was painted underground in the physics lab.

If you're an art lover, it' worth a visit to the physics lab alone just to see that mural.

The slice from PBS North, presented by the Teburg Fund.