KMA History Museum (Zheleznogorsk)

Zheleznogorsk is the seat of Zheleznogorsk District, a town built around Kursk Magnetic Anomaly iron mining. Its local museum holds material on discovery, exploration and ore extraction. Exhibits include core samples, ore and waste rock, documents from early shafts and pits, photos of 20th-century town building. A dedicated hall covers KMA history and Academician I. M. Gubkin's role. The museum is the starting point before visiting the Mikhailovsky GOK pit: context you cannot read alone on spoil tips. For families it is clearer than an industrial site. Zheleznogorsk is far from Kursk (~140 km) but worth a full-day “geology” trip to the oblast's north. The Zheleznogorsk museum is the sensible alternative if the Mikhailovsky pit tour is unavailable: the KMA hall explains basin scale without industrial-zone risk. Allow an hour and ask about seasonal viewing platforms.