Dr. Who - The TARDIS and Way up North in Cobalt
June 2, 2007 by rockwatching
Me getting info for my article in Rock and Gem - Cobalt and the Tardis
IMG_1861, originally uploaded by Mic2006.
About two years ago I went up to the town of Cobalt in Northern Ontario - what a fantastic place, I keep meaning to return - it has a kind of time warp quality - a bit eerie - plenty of character - as a rockhound, the kind of place I would like to visit more often. You can read more about Cobalt in an article I did for the magazine “Rock and Gem”. But for now here is a little taste of the old relics that lie scattered through the woods - what is it you ask?
Those of you who are long of tooth might remember Dr. Who’s Tardis (his Time and Relative Dimention In Space machine T-A-R-D-I-S). It was supposedly far larger inside than it was on the outside and in the common vernacular has come to indicate those exact properties. A person would be correct in refering to a small car as “Quite tardis-like if he considered it to be deceptively roomy inside.
In the 1970’s shows the premise was that the tardis had the chamelon ability to camoflague itself to its surroundings. Unfortunatly, as the Doctor was piloting an obsolete “Type 40″ it was stuck in the shape of a 1950’s “London police box”. (The truth was that once its appearance was stabilized it was a monetary saving for the film crew.)
You might wonder why the doctor eventually vanished from the TV screen. Well here’s your answer. Damn thing got marooned out in the bush. The poor doctor is still wandering around looking for replacement parts.
On a serious note, this is an old elevator from one of Cobalt’s many silver mines. The shaft sits behind capped with a slab of concrete. From beneath the polished lake surface over twenty million ounces of silver had been extracted. The tunnels dropped down 1600 feet. Several miners would crowd into the tiny enclosure and perched upon an ore skip that shared the space they would plummet down into the darkness. Over half of the accidents that occured in 1906 were a result of miners falling from the elevators.
Hi Mick hows your new book going? You sould check out the map on google that i am putting together. Ontario Rock and Mineral Collecting. It may be of interest to you. You may be able to help put it together. Drop me a line.