Camping in the Crosby Mines

[MNDiver]

WARNING: I am about to get on my personal Soapbox.  Please ignore if you don't want to read someone ranting and raving!  You have been warned!  Just my 2 cents...take it or leave it....

I LOVE the Crosby area and hate to see what is happening.  The area holds a special place in my heart and I have lots of great memories there.  My first summer after moving to MN I must have been up there almost every weekend.  I logged about 100 dives that summer, most in Crosby.  I never had any problems with any other campers and the area was, for the most part pretty clean.  What more could you want? Cheap camping, great diving and one of the friendliest dive stores I have ever been to close by for support. 

I too have been disappointed with the condition of the pits recently.   Since the State of MN has started "managing" the area, it has quickly gone down hill.  Much of the area has been closed off, barricaded, and the new laws/rules are randomly enforced.  The pits now have more trash than they ever did before and who knows what people are allowed/not allowed to do.... I guess it depends on who is deciding what laws apply that particular day.

There used to be so many great dive/camping sites.  You could go up there every weekend for a few years and not see everything.  Now, the roads are cut off, and the few places you can go are getting over run.  It is all the "improvements" that the state has added that is hurting the area.  The "snowmobile" trail all by itself has cut off about half of the water access.  Great move there, not like there aren't any snowmobile trails already in MN!  Did they have to cut the area in half with one?  Couldn't they have put it "around" the area? 

It must be hard to manage such a unique area.  I am sure the State was shocked to find out that people in MN actually dive, like diving in clear water, and spend money in the local economy.  The diving lobby is not exactly organized compared to say; the cash cow of the Snowmobile lobby?  The State did a pretty good job with the Maderia so I know they are capable people.  Perhaps the state feels that divers only need one place to dive in the state?

From my point of view, the State is playing a game with us.  They will so poorly manage a great area to the point that it is no longer usable and any natural habitat that is there has been destroyed.  At that point they will play the "savior" role and we will be begging them to come in and "fix" it - when they destroyed it in the first place.  The State employees that are responsible should be ashamed of themselves.  If any of our local investigative reporters ever need a story and start some in depth research of the area... some State employees will be loosing their jobs.

I know there is a long history of how we got to where we are today with regard to the pits and there is a group of divers from the area that are trying to work with the state to see that diving interests are not ignored.  I appreciate all they have done and don't want to take away from their hard work. Perhaps someone will chime in and give us an official "update" on what the master plan is - if there is one.