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javelindan · 04-17-2003, 12:06 PM,

Hi, all. Talking with Bill Hilton at ScubaDaddy's in Burnsville, he's looking to put together a dive trip this summer to Bonne Terre Mine located south of St. Louis. He gave me a brochure and a video to review... looks incredible!!
Bonne Terre is an old lead mine which closed in the early 1960's after being mined out. 34 miles of tunnels of which a good portion is under water (the underwater lake has 17mi of shoreline). A husband/wife dive shop team bought the place in the late 1970's and turned it into the largest inland dive resort in the world with over 15K divers visiting per year (including Jacques Cousteau for a week).
Steady 62F air temps year round, 58F water, 300K watts of lighting crystal clear water. The coolest thing is that when the mine was abandoned, most everything in the mine was simply left behind: mining structures, equipment, etc. and it's all perfectly preserved in the cool, fresh water.

Here's an interesting site which profiles the mine as well as 11 other unique dives in the US:

tbrown · 04-17-2003, 09:15 PM,

For my two cents worth, this is not a good dive to do in the summer time. In the winter time, when everything else is frozen over, 62 degree water is great; however when there is open season on open lakes, in your own backyard, it loses alot of it's appeal. Throw in a strong admission fee, a long drive and a VERY long hike down the tunnel, and you may not be as satisfied as the sales department would have you believe. I must have hit it on an off day because when I was there, I do not think vis was over 30 ft and certainly no where near the 60-100 promised.

javelindan · 04-17-2003, 09:59 PM,

Thanks for the candid feedback, Tom. The video I saw was pretty neat and not really sales oriented... rather lots of points of interest profiles with a SCUBA bent. It was actually a bunch of news spots (including Good Morning America) and an international outdoorsman show which had historical info, site info as well as footage of the newscasters and a group from the outdoorsman show doing dives with the owners.
Interestingly, you didn't see anyone else diving during the video spots. I can imagine things getting pretty kicked up if there were a bunch of divers down there at a time. That would nuke the vis in a hurry and take a lot of the fun out of the dive... Have you been to any of the other 11 "unusual dive sites" listed on the link I posted?

tbrown · 04-18-2003, 04:59 AM,

No, but I have to admit the thought of diving in the missle silo is awful interesting and I'm sure would be a good t-shirt to add to the collection Wink

. Just not sure if it would warrent a road trip. I have a brother-in-law in Utah and I thought about visisting him and checking out Sea-base. He told me to come on out, but leave my gear at home as the locals call it Pea-base, and give it a rating of, well unflatering is the PG rating. Still may do that anyway, as it goes against my grain to travel anywhere without my gear. And lets face it, a bad day diving beats a good day watching TV with relatives.

I'm not saying, on Bonne Terre, that it is not worth doing (at least once). It's just this time of year, there are alot of other options much closer to home and much less expensive. Save it for Jan. or Feb. when there is no where else to dive, and 62 looks like a Caribean getaway. Even then, if you have seen the video (I think I know which one you are referring to), you have seen the best at Bonne Terre, and at least in my case, the actual bottom time was not like the video. But then again, when you are staring at nothing but snow, with no end in sight, it beats the heck out of not diving at all.

javelindan · (This post was last modified: 04-18-2003, 04:04 PM by javelindan.)

Thanks, Tom - well said. At this point, I haven't even taken a dive in Superior yet (I'm still a relatively new arrival to MN) and it's right up the road. Certainly LOTS to see there. I'm getting dry suit certified in prep for diving on the many well-preserved wrecks the big lake has to offer. Suggestions? I've heard good stuff about the Madiera, America, and I saw some cool pics on a recent US Coast Guard buoy tender wreck, the Mesquite (went down in 1989 - check out this site for some nice pics: ).