Quarry open in St. Cloud

[eelpout]

Back in 1979 we dove three quarries in St. Cloud. On of them was 80 feet deep. The most memorable one was a quarry that had a road that ended at the edge of it. On the specific point of that quarry, there were at least 3 cars that were piled on each other. They were probably pushed of the road into the quarry at different times and piled on each other.

The last time we tried to dive the same quarries, we were stopped by the police and told we could not dive in them. For many years I use to call Jim Olson (use to own a dive stor ein St. Cloud) and ask him if we could dive the quarries, and he would alsways say no.  I also know that Mark and Muriel (former owners of Underwater Sports) tried to convince the county to let diver sin there. They finally gave in.

This change in St. Cloud is great. I have always wanted to go back there. All I have are pictures taken from the surface. I actually climbed a pile of granite boulder to take a shot of th quarry. I will try to post what I have in hopes that somebody may remember where we were diving back in 1979.

Jim

[mcdiver]

These quarries offer a place where a person can do a quick dive after work, not in the same league as Crosby/Ironton, but then again, it is right in my back yard. I will check into doing Ice Diving their this winter, it could be good since #18 has pretty good vis all the time.

[Elkman]

I'd echo Lonnie's comments on the quarries, for the most part.  One interesting thing I found about Quarry #18 was that the water quickly got cloudy at about 43 feet, and I could almost see a level of haze floating there.  Below 43 feet, it very rapidly got darker -- it was very dark at the maximum depth of 53 feet.

My favorite part about the quarries was the great visibility.  I knew as soon as I looked into Quarry #18 that it was going to be much better than Square Lake or most other local diving places.  The downside is that there isn't a lot of room for exploring -- it's easy to see everything in one of the quarries with a single dive.  I wouldn't consider this a major dive destination or anything, but it would work as a good half-day outing.