Diorama: "Zinc Mine: Mine Inspection"

This original diorama is partially-mechanized with a single 205-watt motor. It was constructed--most likely by the Department of the Interior's Office of Exhibits--in 1936 at a cost of $1,600 for the federal displays at the Greater Texas and Pan-American Exposition in Dallas, Texas, (June 12-October 31, 1937) and eventually remitted for display at the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum. The diorama depicts a subterranean lead-zinc mine in the Tri-State District of Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri with government inspectors at work testing for gas leaks.

At the left of the scene, a man is standing in left profile and reaching up onto the mine wall. To his right, another man is kneeling on the mine floor. A third man is riding aboard a small cart along a narrow gauge track, ahead of which are four rolling containers of zinc or lead. In the central, recessed portion of the diorama are more rolling containers, two men and a burro.