The man who came up with the idea of the Big Nickel is revealing the whole story in a book he's written with his son.

Ted Szilva was a firefighter 50 years ago when the city launched a contest to get proposals from the public to celebrate its centennial.

Szilva submitted his idea of a Big Nickel, underground mine and mining museum.

At the time he was told his idea wouldn't do anything good for Sudbury and they picked a police station instead.

"Of course ... [the police station] had a lot of visitors too." said Szilva with a chuckle.

Wednesday on Morning North with Markus Schwabe, Szilva told the story of the hurdles he went through to make his dream happen all on his own.

You can tune in Thursday at 6:10 am on Morning North to hear more on this story as Ted is joined by his son Jim.

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