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Shortly after the abandon of St. Martin am Schneeberg in 1967, the miners began to report that looting and thieving of valuable relics of the mine was taking place, and proposed that objects of historical value should be kept in a safe place.
In 1969, the German author Hans Michael Voelckel first made the trip from Saltnuß in Passeier to Schneeberg, and was so surprised at seeing the now abandoned treasures of a practically unique tradition of high-altitude mining that he devoted himself to historical research on the mine and published his first book about Schneeberg in 1979.
But the merit for creating a Museum of Mines in the Tyrol must go to the then provincial councillor and current chairman of the Museum of Mines, Karl Oberhauser of Sterzing. In 1981, during an excursion to Schneeberg, impressed by the obvious labour which had been carried out over centuries in extremely harsh conditions, he had the idea of creating the Provincial Museum of Mines of the Tyrol and, with political ability and considerable stubbornness, managed to achieve this aim.
After the episodes of wanton destruction at Schneeberg and the closure of the Ridnaun mine in 1985, Oberhauser asked local politicians, the historian Georg Mutschlechner and also members of the association Freizeitring Ridnauntal to made a preliminary survey at Schneeberg and Maiern. On that occasion, it was decided to conserve the mine and some of its structures. In 1987, a provincial technical committee was set up under the direction of Dr. Hans Kopfsguter and committees for the local mining museums of Mines, at Ridnaun under Hermann Schölzhorn and in Passeier under Karl Lanthaler. These committees, particularly that of Ridnaun, worked very hard in the following years and attempted to interest the local population in the project, in order to have as much collaboration as possible. Surveys were organized at Schneeberg and trips to mines abroad were made, for purposes of instruction. Collection of information was intense and complete, and was followed by technical reports, interviews and round tables with ex-miners and mine technicians. Other initiatives were photographic displays, a quiz competition, the particularly solemn celebration of the feast of St. Barbara, a video (‘Ore transport at Schneeberg’) and the publication of new books. The little church of Mary of the Snows at St. Martin was rebuilt, and the chapel of St. Barbara and the votive chapel at Maiern were restored. The Ridnaun Committee managed to have five ex-miners employed by the town of Ratschings, to collect and repair old mining equipment, to clear the entire open-air transport system of overgrown vegetation and debris, to clean it, and to plan and construct a special ‘instructive itinerary’ for tourists along it. After all this, thanks to the special dedication of Karl Oberhauser and the committee’s excellent work, authorization was granted from the provincial authorities to create a Museum of Mines of the Tyrol. Building and technical services were assigned to the Bozen architect Franco Tardivo, who prepared a restoration project, with the creation of the museum for the Maiern plant. This was done between 1989 and 1993, in close collaboration with local committees and with the newly constituted Board of Administration of the Provincial Museum of Mines. On May 23 1993, the Ridnaun-Schneeberg section of the museum was solemnly inaugurated.
In July 1991, after much preparatory work by the museum committee of Passeier and the Board, the local authorities began restoration work at St. Martin am Schneeberg.
In this case too, the aim was to conserve for posterity everything which could still be conserved. Although the state of the village, after its long period of abandon, was very poor, clearly its quite unique character really had to be recovered and preserved. The costly work of restoration, influenced by the altitude, the need to transport materials by helicopter, and the shortness of the summer season, all meant that work was protracted, and in fact has not yet been completed.