The Old Iron Mine

There's a local defunct iron mine, closed down in the 1800's because the cache wasn't very rich. The town bought it back in the early 1900's with the intent of cleaning it up. However, in the 1920’s a mining accident—a cave in—trapped and killed 13 miners. That incident combined with corruption, the Great Depression, and the war killed any future efforts to reopen the mine. The mine contains about 40 miles of tunnels and is ¼ mile deep at the lowest point. It contains magnetite ore, which is magnetic, and small amounts of hematite ore, which is not. These are found in banded iron formations from the Precambrian era, which ended 541 million years ago.
Most of the tunnels of the old mine are now within the protected zone of the forest preserve, so it can’t be mined. The town posted warning signs on places of the land but left it otherwise open for public use. About a decade ago, a visiting hiker disappeared near one of the untended mine shafts. Bones were found a year later. Local families still warn their kids away from playing in that area.
Rumor has it that the miners who died struck a massive vein of gold (which doesn’t make sense because it’s not even a gold mine) before perishing, and that the old mine is haunted with the ghosts of those men who never made it back to their families...and also that the massive gold vein is still there, waiting for anyone foolish enough to venture in.

Natural Resources

Magnetite and hematite ore. Rumor has it there's gold as well, but there's no real evidence of that.

Type

Cave System