Sterling Hill Mining Museum — Attraction in Ogdensburg

Drove an hour to come see this place and take a tour, and it was well worth it! Me and my boyfriend had so much fun taking the tour. Our first stop in the tour was in the museum, which was pretty interesting. Next, we went to the florescent rock/mineral museum which was definitely my favorite part! It was so crazy and super cool. All the neon colored rocks and minerals lighting up was very beautiful and really cool to look at. Last, we went through the mine/cave which was interesting to learn about and really fun to walk through it and see the structure of it all. The only downfall was we were unaware the cave was partially flooded during the dates we went, which meant certain parts of the cave we couldn’t explore or see, and we had to do the tour differently then how it usually is done because we couldn’t go to certain parts due to the flooding. We had fun either way though, and were still happy to have went even though we couldn’t see all of the parts of the usual tour. The girl giving us the tour was very friendly, she seemed to know what she was talking about and gave us a lot of information that was interesting to hear about. I didn’t realize that the tour is not only looking around, but we receive a lot of knowledge and information from the tour guide, so it is also a good learning experience. This place is good for every age as well, which I thought was awesome. I saw kids being taken on our group tour as young as 10, and I also saw an elderly couple on our tour wanting to experience the cave as well. So it’s welcoming to any ages and anyone interested in going! The tour is roughly 2 hours long so you get a good experience for your money. Just make sure you go online to check the tour times, because I believe there is only one or two SCHEDULED TOURS most days and you need to arrive before that tour leaves or else you’re out of luck. We almost didn’t know this information and were just going to show up randomly to request a tour, so thank god before leaving I checked the website again and figured out there are ONLY SCHEDULED TOURS so we found out the time that it was so we could get there for the tour. Make sure you know that before going!! My boyfriend and I had a wonderful time there and thought it was well worth the hour drive to go see it! We both took a lot of pictures while there so I’ll post a good amount of the photos on this review, but don’t look at them if you don’t want spoilers!! Great experience, super friendly staff, very knowledgeable staff, fair price, and an overall awesome place for all ages. I’m so glad...

I went with my family on a tour here for the first time because the website said that was the only way to see the site and I thought we’d enjoy it as a family. Unfortunately there were a few downsides for us. The first was I didn’t realize they stopped pumping water out of the caves. I’m sensitive to mold and there were lots of mannequins in clothing that were soaked and moldy. The tour guide also alluded to chemicals in the air and I’m very chemical sensitive from my heath issue. There is only the tour option so that meant standing in there for two hours, and I mean just standing in one spot for fifteen minutes at a time. I had to lean on my partner because the exposure was making me dizzy and fatigued and there was only one guide so I couldn’t leave the group. Our tour group was enormous as well so even when there were chairs there were none to sit in. It was hard to see and hear because the group was so large and we couldn’t move at all in many of the rooms. It was two hours long which was exhausting for our autistic child to endure who needs to stim and I was getting sick from being there so long. It was a rough day for us. If they had a short tour we would’ve been fine. I wouldn’t have minded a brief tour showing us everything where we keep walking or just going in the museums and not entering the mine at all but it felt like torture being told to just stand in a mine for so long once I realized I wasn’t safe there. And since this information isn’t available anywhere others should be aware that if you are sensitive to poor air quality you shouldn’t go here and it’s not that great for young kids. The rocks were pretty and this was highly recommended to me but I wouldn’t go back or recommend it unless they changed the way people can interact with the site, reduced the tour group size, and made the air quality safer for...

It breaks my heart to give a non profit run by volunteer anything less than 5 stars but I am hoping this helps people avoid an unpleasant experience by being prepared and possibly help the mine make some changes to the tours.

I have been on no less than 10 tours here in my life beginning when I was in 6th grade for a field trip. My advise is to come only during off peak times if possible. We were told there is only a 1p tour. So we get there a little after 12, get our tickets and go to the meeting area at 12:45 as instructed. They basically yell out that they are taking the first 35 people. So everyone goes rushing to get on the tour which fills up in 3 seconds. Then they have you wait another 10 mins and do the same thing again. There is absolutely no order and you have to be a little aggressive to actually get on a tour. They would have some kind of number system based on when you arrive. If you are in the pavilion waiting for the tour, start at the front so you can get on an early tour.

Idk if this was because it was a busy day and we got stuck on the last tour but they skipped half of the tour in the mine. They also no longer give you a little souvenir rock to take home.

In addition, the guides themselves do the best they can and I am not faulting them. There is definitely a knowledge gap. Idk if the retired minors who used to run the tours moved away or something but it doesn’t seem like they passed on the little nuances about the mine which are most fascinating to me which I why I have come here every couple of years. The tours used to always be a little different but now they seem more cookie-cutter.

In closing, try to go during off peak times/days if possible stand at the front of the meeting area so you can hop on the first tour and bring some extra...