Looking Back At Korea
Yeongwol – Samtan Art Mine

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  Looking back at some of the great trips we took in Korea.  A few of the trips stand out as being really enjoyable and are places we went back to more then once.  One of my favorites was The Samtan Art Mine in Gohan-eup.  The mine is close enough to many popular tourist areas Yeongwol and High 1 Ski Resort.  Which makes it a perfect stop during all seasons!

  Without too long of a pre-ramble here, let’s take a look at the Art Mine!

  The Art mine, was operated as the Samcheok Coal mine, the largest in South Korea, employing around 3,000 people between 1961 and 2001, and was converted to a small hotel, restaurant, and art gallery in 2013.  It has been the filming location for the very popular Korean drama Descendants Of The Sun, and stores over 100,00 pieces of folk art.

  Greeting you at the entrance is a Jeepney from the Philippines and what looks like a cross between a Minion and a Terminator pointing you to the ticket office,  In the background is the winding tower that operated the coal mines lift in the main shaft.  Across the street is a closed off section of the mine with a sign that says, “Dad, today another safe day.” Right away I knew that I was going to have a wonderful time playing photographer.

   Proceeding into the main building we were welcomed out of the cold by a word burning stove, where we ordered coffee and sat warming ourselves, and had a chance to talk to the mines owner, who gave Mi Jung a pretty extensive history of the mine, and the art that was collected by her late husband.  

We were also informed that the art mine features hotel style rooms to rent, and a very popular time to stay at the museum for dinner and wine was in the spring and summer months.   Here are some of the themed hotel rooms.

African Room

Chinese Room

Common meeting / music listening room

Descending the stairs into the art gallery and mine exposition rooms there was a wall mural of the mine workers that I thought was very touching.

Here we see the equipment from the control room of the mine.  Which I found fascinating.

Other interactive artwork about the mine, is the locker room, laundry and showers.

As these were in a room full of musical instruments.  I could not tell if this was supposed to be a different style of piano roll, or used to automatically control some kind of mining machinery.  These were on folding plastic cards.

The museum not only holds a vast collection of art, but also a large collection of documents from the 40 years of mine operations, such as salary ledgers, and blue prints.  Here are a Group of researchers pouring over the documents for university research.

Here is one of the “Portable” computers used out in the field.

Other interesting computer related pieces were these 9 track reel to reel tapes.

Mi Jung in the rows of archives.

I guess we know what operating system the mines computers ran on.  I could use this for my next IT certification.

Here is some of the artwork on display

As my passion really lies in photography, I was itching to get outside and take pictures of the mine building itself and some of the equipment on display.  Here is an old Airstream trailer being used as a cafeteria. 

You are allowed to walk into the main mine building itself, as the intention is to display the buildings in their natural condition, you are required to wear a hard hat, as pieces of the ceiling sometimes fall.

  A look at the control room where the mining operations take place.

  You are supposed to stay on the catwalk, but I couldn’t help my curiosity of exploring on my own.

 

Here is some detritus left over from the mine operation.

They had some statues of miners standing with their equipment and eating lunch.  Could you imagine eating with all of the coal dust in the air?

 

Walking around to the back side of the building I found an open entrance, and we can see a lift for an ore cart, and an ore crusher to the back left.  I did not venture to far into the building as I was by myself and if I got injured it would have taken a while for people to find me.

 

Here is a good look at the ore crusher.

I originally thought this was a furnace of some sort.  It turns out, the ore carts would go in here, and the entire apparatus would turn upside down to empty the cars.

 

One of the things I really loved about the art mine, is how much freedom I had to incorporate the exhibits into my photography.  Taking the hard hat from the main building decided to setup the tripod and get a picture with one of the equipment displays.

They also had some vehicles that had nothing to do with operating the mine, such as this brutish double decker bus, And a Vietnamese cyclo.

Another shaft building and winding tower, not as big as the main shaft, again I was not able to find a safe way into the winding tower, and I did not think Mi Jung could get me to a hospital even though there was an ambulance at the ready.

I would like to go back to the Samtan art mine during the late spring or early summer, when the restaurants are open and take advantage of staying in one of the rooms.  It would give me a chance to try and really explore the other buildings and get some more detailed photos of the mine.

Directions to Samtan Art Mine

From Seoul

Train

Take the train from Cheongnyangni to Gohan station, then take the intercity bus to the Samtan Art Mine. Travel time about 4 hours.

Bus

Take the Bus from Dong-Seoul, Or Express Bus Terminal to Gohan/Sabuk bus terminal, then transfer to intercity bus to the Samtan Art Mine.

GPS Coordinates
 37°11’7″ N
 128°53’3″ E

Address 

216-1 Gohan-ri, Gohan-eup, Jeongseon, Gangwon-do, South Korea
Phone #
+82-33-591-3001

Official Website

http://samtanartmine.com/

Operating Hours

Tue – Sunday 0900 -1900
During peak season (18 JUL – 23 AUG) Art Mine is open everyday.