Britannia Mine Museum is giving families a reason to get off the couch this spring, with hands-on science sessions and Easter festivities running across two separate programming windows in March and April.
In a press release, the museum announced Spring Break programming from March 14 to 29, followed by Easter weekend activities from April 3 to 6, with both offerings centered on the museum’s Terra Lab and its historic underground mine site.
The headline Spring Break program, “Live in the Lab: Secret Identities,” runs Monday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. Participants take on the role of historic assayers, conducting experiments — including streak testing, hardness comparisons, and safe acid reactions — to identify minerals pulled from the mountain.
Two daily history talks round out the Spring Break schedule. “What Happened to Mount Sheer,” at 1:30 p.m., examines a vanished mining community that once housed 1,200 residents, including a hospital, theatre, and hotel. According to the press release, the town sat high above the mine and was home to 200 families at its peak in 1940. “Before Roads and Rail,” at 3:30 p.m., uses rare video footage to chronicle how steamships once served as Britannia Beach’s primary link to the outside world.
For Easter weekend, the museum is offering a mining-themed scavenger hunt and a special underground train tour. The press release noted the tour draws a deliberate parallel between the Easter egg hunt tradition and miners’ daily search for ore underground. Drop-in science sessions in the Terra Lab will also continue through the long weekend.
