Denis Olmstead says a list of ideas for Giant Mine range from the wacky to the compelling. - Darren Stewart/NNSL photo

These are a few of the ideas that visitors from across Canada and around the world have contributed for the future of Giant Mine.

Two years ago the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre put a suggestion book beside its interpretive mine display asking for ideas.

"It's open to visitors, to residents, anybody who wants to write in it," said Denis Olmstead, general manager of the centre.

Some say clean it up and leave it alone. Many say make it a safe, interpretive tourist attraction.

Others ask why there's so much fuss about a hole in the ground.

Most of the entries are anonymous and they range from the interesting to the downright silly.

One person suggested, "Fill it with Jell-O and let people swim in it for five bucks a pop."

Another suggests, "Make it a training facility for the mining industry."

Tony Bellette, who visited Yellowknife sometime last year from Hobart, Tasmania, said he'd worked at Giant 40 years ago.

"Please preserve as much of the mine as possible," he wrote. "Including the ball mill which I once had to clean out from the inside. I will never forget it. Don't turn it into a theme park type of attraction. Mines the world over will speak eloquently just by being left as they were when they were working."

Olmstead, who has been a general manager for nine months, said the book was an idea of one of the former managers of the centre.

He said it was largely forgotten by the centre's staff until recently while it continued to fill up with ideas. He said he plans to bring it to this week's Mining Heritage committee meeting.

"We're going to try to use it now," he said.

Walt Humphries, president of the NWT Mining Heritage committee, said he's interested to see what visitors have suggested. "We'll certainly have a look. We've been interested in establishing a museum at the site for a while now."