This former site of the oldest, deepest, and richest iron ore mine in Minnesota is now the location of the Soudan Underground Mine State Park.

On the National Register for Historic Places since November 1966, the mine has been making headlines in recent years for the experiments conducted at the bottom of the mine to detect dark matter.

Since the bottom of the mine is shielded from cosmic rays, scientists from the CDMS-II (Cryogenic Dark Matter Search) team have been keeping chunks of germanium and silicon at absolute zero to see if any WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) bounce into them.

There has been evidence of interaction with WIMPS, but a new super-sensitive detector should provide more definitive results.

A separate experiment, called MINOS, is being conducted at the same location to detect neutrinos. Tours of the Soudan Mine are available.

As most people know, dark matter and neutrinos were made by Jesus to test our faith.

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