Bonne Terre
Over the weekend I rode down to Missouri with some people from my local dive shop to dive the Bonne Terre Mines. The lead mine was operated for almost 100 years until it was shut down in 1962 when the demand for lead was dwindling. The pumps that kept the mine dry were turned off and over time the mine flooded. Today the mine provides a billion gallon underwater dive resort which is actually number 10 on National Geographic's "Adventure 100".
To start the dive, your guide gives you a briefing of what you'll be doing and what you'll see. Once the briefing is complete they have you suit up before they head over to the mule entrance which was the entry location for mules before it became the debarkation point for divers. After a long trek down stairs you arrive at the beginning of a graded path. The patch leads you even deeper into the mine. Ultimately you end up at a wooden dock on the edge of the underground lake. The cavern which houses the dock is enormous. Massive stone pillars have been carved out of the bedrock and extend to the ceiling sixty feet above. These stone pillars extend down below into the water to the floor which averages 40-60 feet deep. Calcium falls, manganese deposits, and a good amount of quartz add to the beauty of the place. It's hard to spend much time in the mine without marvelling at the fact that human beings dug the place out by hand. The sheer scale of the endeavour is mind boggling.
We did three dives on Saturday and one dive on Sunday. On our first dive we saw a drill sticking out of the wall in the mine. When the mine was closed the miners left their equipment where it was. The equipment remains and divers are encouraged to touch it (one of the few times this is true for divers). We swam down to an ore cart which had several pickaxes in it. I actually swung the pickaxe a couple times and managed to dent a piece of stone... I'm not much of a miner.
On another dive we entered the "chapel room", so named because there are white crosses painted on the walls. These crosses were used to note the places that core samples would be taken. The chapel room was interesting not only for the crosses but also because it's an overhead environment. You're unable to go directly to the surface while in the room. As the divers exhale you can watch the bubbles hit the ceiling and run around. It actually looks quite a bit like liquid mercury. The fact that it's an overhead environment is mitigated by the fact that the water is crystal clear and that there is a dive guide in front of you and behind you. Nonetheless, it's a little weird knowing that if you need to surface you need to get out of the room before heading up. The dive guides are very considerate and were careful to point out that if anyone didn't want to end up in the room they were welcome to stay with the safety diver just outside.
On one dive we swam through the iron and wood skeleton of an elevator shaft. We were at about 40 feet but the shaft itself actually goes down about 300 feet. We also swam through a short overhead before swimming back through another area immediately above it... we could actually watch our air bubbles coming up through the rock.
The mine has 24 trails that recreational divers can dive. The more advanced trails can only be done after the previous trails are complete. They do this so that they can be sure that divers are prepared for the more challenging conditions found on some of the advanced trails. For experienced technical divers there are opportunities to dive areas that aren't part of a set trail. One of these areas, deeper than recreational divers go, is an underground city used when the mine was operational. Miners spent six days a week underground without coming up to the surface. The city had a cafeteria as well as sleeping quarters for the miners.
The people from the dive shop are already planning the next trip to Bonne Terre in November. I'm definitely looking forward to going back!
To start the dive, your guide gives you a briefing of what you'll be doing and what you'll see. Once the briefing is complete they have you suit up before they head over to the mule entrance which was the entry location for mules before it became the debarkation point for divers. After a long trek down stairs you arrive at the beginning of a graded path. The patch leads you even deeper into the mine. Ultimately you end up at a wooden dock on the edge of the underground lake. The cavern which houses the dock is enormous. Massive stone pillars have been carved out of the bedrock and extend to the ceiling sixty feet above. These stone pillars extend down below into the water to the floor which averages 40-60 feet deep. Calcium falls, manganese deposits, and a good amount of quartz add to the beauty of the place. It's hard to spend much time in the mine without marvelling at the fact that human beings dug the place out by hand. The sheer scale of the endeavour is mind boggling.
We did three dives on Saturday and one dive on Sunday. On our first dive we saw a drill sticking out of the wall in the mine. When the mine was closed the miners left their equipment where it was. The equipment remains and divers are encouraged to touch it (one of the few times this is true for divers). We swam down to an ore cart which had several pickaxes in it. I actually swung the pickaxe a couple times and managed to dent a piece of stone... I'm not much of a miner.
On another dive we entered the "chapel room", so named because there are white crosses painted on the walls. These crosses were used to note the places that core samples would be taken. The chapel room was interesting not only for the crosses but also because it's an overhead environment. You're unable to go directly to the surface while in the room. As the divers exhale you can watch the bubbles hit the ceiling and run around. It actually looks quite a bit like liquid mercury. The fact that it's an overhead environment is mitigated by the fact that the water is crystal clear and that there is a dive guide in front of you and behind you. Nonetheless, it's a little weird knowing that if you need to surface you need to get out of the room before heading up. The dive guides are very considerate and were careful to point out that if anyone didn't want to end up in the room they were welcome to stay with the safety diver just outside.
On one dive we swam through the iron and wood skeleton of an elevator shaft. We were at about 40 feet but the shaft itself actually goes down about 300 feet. We also swam through a short overhead before swimming back through another area immediately above it... we could actually watch our air bubbles coming up through the rock.
The mine has 24 trails that recreational divers can dive. The more advanced trails can only be done after the previous trails are complete. They do this so that they can be sure that divers are prepared for the more challenging conditions found on some of the advanced trails. For experienced technical divers there are opportunities to dive areas that aren't part of a set trail. One of these areas, deeper than recreational divers go, is an underground city used when the mine was operational. Miners spent six days a week underground without coming up to the surface. The city had a cafeteria as well as sleeping quarters for the miners.
The people from the dive shop are already planning the next trip to Bonne Terre in November. I'm definitely looking forward to going back!
posted by KzooJason at 5:46 PM
3 Comments:
That sounds sweet Jason, I'm totally jealous. What was the water temp? How many people were on your 'tour'? How was doing three dives on one day? I would imagine it was not as tiring as the day we did four because there isn't any chop (or people getting sea sick). Anyway, sounds awesome!
The water temp was 58 degrees and the air temp was 62 degrees. Because it's so far underground the air and water temps are constant year-round. I was fairly comfortable in my 7mm wetsuit until the third dive which was a bit chilly. I spent most of the evening trying to warm up. I'm considering the possibility of getting a drysuit at some point in the not so distant future.
There were seven of us from the local dive shop and a couple others that were put in our group. Most of the dives were about ten people. Smaller groups would have been cool but it didn't seem like too many people. The only exception was a small group of really annoying people that kept trying to swim into people. I swear they thought they were in some sort of bumper car game.
Three dives worked pretty well. Even without the chop I was glad we weren't doing a fourth dive on the first day. I would've been better off than I was when we did our fourth dive but it still would have been difficult and less satisfying...
J-Dawg...thanks for posting. Even if it was yet another boring dive post. Maybe the blog should be renamed the food and dives of Jason. If this is really the life of Jason than I am concerned that nothing at all happens for long streches of time and then you eat and dive.
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