Bonne Terre Mines, Bonne Terre, MO

kitsapdiver · Post by **kitsapdiver** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 6:56 pm

Wow what a weekend! It was a ton of fun, and the mine itself is absolutely a phenomenal sight.

This write up is long. There is a summary at the bottom (easily identified with a heading) if you wanna skip the details.

As I think most the board has figured out I am originally from Ohio, and when I was at Ohio State I got certified by a good buddy of mine, who at the time was an independent instructor, and since I moved to Washington has opened a brick and mortar dive shop in Columbus, OH. His shop sponsored this trip (as it's about a 9 hour drive for them from Columbus), and since there was a direct flight from SEA I decided to join them to see some of my old friends from my college days.

First of all the flights are easy to St. Louis. There is a direct flight 3.5 hours from SEA on Alaskan that leaves at 11:35AM, and my return flight tomorrow also direct from STL to SEA. After landing here I got a car and was at the hotel about an hour and a half later (1 hour drive). This gave me a chance to go to dinner with my friends, have a few beers and catch up.

Saturday morning we got up and left the hotel (Super 8, less than mile from the mine) and headed to Bonne Terre Mines by 7AM. When you walk into the dive shop you quickly see they are very worried about liability (and with good reason). They make you sign all the standard waiver forms, and then follow up with an 8 minute video on the dangers of diving compressed gas. (Including, tropical fish, sharks, boats, protecting the coral etc).

But then you finally get to head down to the mine. A walk that they say is a half mile. My friends told me it was more like a quarter miles, and I'd be surprised if it's really more than 0.15 miles. Underground. Of course you are carrying all your gear (less tank). And you better get all your gear in the first trip because you can not make the 0.15 mile trip back and forth between the dive dock, and th door to the mine without a staff member, because the trail splits a couple places, (they offer walking tours/boat tour) of the upper portion of the mine.

The dives are done on an Super AL80 (truly 80 cubic feet of gas rather than the 77 cubic feet in the standard AL80). The dives are lead by "Trail Leaders", and you must progress through the trails in order, Trail 1, then trail 2, than trail 3, through trail 24. You can not dive unattended at this site (I am sure this is will keep many folks from considering this as a dive site, but read on...) The first dive they don't allow lights or cameras. The entire dive area is lit by permanently installed overhead lighting so a dive light really isn't required on the first dive. The dock is in an area that's 150 feet deep. We got in and did a surface swim to an area called "The Shallows" maximum depth in the shallows is about 20ffw. They made everyone do a gas share, and mask clearing drill. Then they start swimming around the shallows, they show off some tools, a drill hanging from the wall, an Ore Dump, a train, and then they head out into deep water.

When you get into deep water it's essentially a wall dive and we stayed at about 30-40 ffw along the wall when you can see the amazing columns that still support the amazing structure there and no floor below you (I guess the depth there is about 130-150 at the floor). On this dive they go under a large archway, which was very neat in that it the overhead (divers were in an overhead for a duration of about 15 linear feet, and the archway was probably 50-75 feet wide so it was not at all overwhelming. They then went to the top of the archway at about 20 ffw and did a gas check on everyone. Then head off to an area that is actually "under the shallows" you swim back toward the shallows and instead of going up onto the shallows we headed down under the shallows (you realize the shallows are a cliff, and you can dive beneath the ledge. Here there is actually dynamite casing in the ceiling, and while it is overhead your just under a cliff, and the ambient light still provides enough light to see the exit, and where you're going.

Through out the dives we saw a couple different places where you could swim into other caves, chambers, rooms, under cliff and over hangs, a lot of overhead area. What makes this site unique, and even unlike the caves I saw in Florida is that it's so massive. The top level of the mine is 200-250 feet high, and filled with 150 feet of water. There are "canyons" or rooms that are hundreds of feet wide and I don't think you could run a line like a cave line through an area that big and have reasonable expectation that you would be to find it in a lost line drill. And without a line you could very very easily think you're swimming in Open Water, and not realize that you swam into an overhead, it's just that it's over a 100 feet above you.

For dive 2 we got to see an ore cart, some stairs, a bench where the workers hang out, a hole named "keyhole" that looks much like the "keyhole" in the Devil's Cave systems for those aware. And there was very little overhead.

Sunday I did two more dives. I had been briefed that they did not allow lights period, so I did not bring mine, and I regret that. They do allow them on all trails, other than trail 1. The dives Sunday would have been much improved by having my own light. We got to do the trail that leads the divers over to the elevators and mechanical structure for the Mine. From there we headed into a tunnel that had the cross-section of volkswagon Van and a distance of about 25 feet into a room that collects a lot of the gases from the oxidation of the metals used for the structure, and swimming through it is like swimming through a "smokey" room. It was very neat. And to get out of that room we swam through a "chimney" like passage. WE then returned by swimming through the massive columns.

For the second dive Sunday they did a very long swim underneath a ledge, and in the distance you could see an arch that must have been hundred of feet across (once again the magnitude of all the structures at this place is just amazing), and into a room with some tools, around the ledges we found some ladders and some walkways the mine supervisors used to get around. We then headed down a passage that had some pipes. This passage was nearly 70-80 yards, and was too dark to be in without a light. As the trails get higher in number they become increasingly complicated. When we came out of that tunnel they had everyone who did have lights turn them out because now we are at the farthest end of the main lit room and all the massive columns were backlit, and the magnitude of the site was just majestic. We then headed over to see some ore dumps that still had wooden frames around them with Giant Doors for opening up and controlling the ore dump. We than returned to the dock via the key hole.

For the first three dives there were really no spots that someone could have silted out, but the rooms, and tunnel on the fourth dive could be silted out and were silted out by those ahead of me (My friends from Columbus weren't on this dive, as they left after dive one on Sunday to drive home, and I joined up with another group, 2 divers from California, 4 from Wisconsin, 4 from Pennsylvania, and 2 from some strange land named "Federal Way, WA").

Carrying all the gear up the that 0.15 miles is a little bit of a a work out with the change in altitude, and wearing a drysuit.

Here's what I did learn about this site. They are evaluating you on each dive, to determine if you are really qualified to dive the next trail. 96% of the dives they run are trails 1-6. But as you get to the trails in the teens they run them in groups of 2 or 3, rather than 12. And if you progress into the 18+ you're really looking at doubles, being tech trained and possibly even cave trained, and the guides have a relationship with you. They want to be familiar with your skill set your personality, and all that good stuff (apparently the term "standardized training" carries zero value there0. They told me that what they are looking for is to actually have a relationship with the customers that they're taking deep with real severe penetration. Above trail 8 they require Guides wear doubles, and carry reels, and the longer tunnels would have gold line installed

The annoying part is that you can't fly in, and show the appropriate tech certifications, or even do some type of check out dive, and then do some of the later dives you still have to go in order. However it's pretty clear that technical diving does happen there it just requires repeat exposure before they trust you.

////******Summary**********////

The majority of the diving here is "pseudo" open water. The single most impressive thing is the absolutely massive massive massive structure here, but the ledges are a huge risk for inadvertent entrance into an overhead environment. You can't see all the way across rooms or passages.

The dives are guided, and until you have made 15-20 dives there and have some type of relationship with the staff you're not going to be doing any technical style diving. My dives were probably all average 40-20 feet so very shallow, but they lasted 55-65 minutes each.

All in all it was a good experience, and I look forward to doing some of the more advanced trails in the future (my friend plans on running this as an annual trip. It is distinctly different from the Cave Environment because it is so open and massive, and really provides a unique experience.

I return to Seattle tomorrow and look forward to being back in the PNW.

Peace and Safe Diving All!

kitsapdiver · Post by **kitsapdiver** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:14 pm

Dives here are $70 a piece, no discount for groups, and no discount for multiple dives. To me that is the biggest whammy!

i had 57 degree water temperatures and unlimited visibility!

Since you have to have a guide (and they typically have 2 or 3 safety divers with each group to lead back those who get low on air early). They can only handle a limited number of divers a day. But it doesn't seem as if though they are booked solid. We were told they see about 3000 divers/year.

I personally find it surprising they can't do something to make the place more accessible. Find a way that you could get more people through there in a weekend.

Linedog · Post by **Linedog** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:21 pm

Over $200,000 a year? Ya think they could run a few more divers through at that price!

kitsapdiver · Post by **kitsapdiver** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:24 pm

Well and I imagine that there 3000 number is divers not dives. It seemed capacity is 50-60 persons. If you figure both days of the weekend times 52 weeks a year that's about 3k. If each diver does 4 dives a weekend that closer to 800,000.

Linedog · Post by **Linedog** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:26 pm

Well, the mine is still on my bucket list!

kitsapdiver · Post by **kitsapdiver** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:31 pm

And it should be on people's bucket list, but they need to come in with the right mindset and not expect they'll be allowed to go explore freely (they did say they estimate that only 15% of the mine has been explored)!

WylerBear · Post by **WylerBear** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:31 pm

Nice report. I went there a few years ago and wrote up a review. It's at http://www.pnwscuba.com/tripreports/bonneterremine.htm if anyone wants to read more about this place. It really is amazing and if you ever get the chance, you should do a couple of dives there.

kitsapdiver · Post by **kitsapdiver** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:43 pm

WylerBear wrote:Nice report. I went there a few years ago and wrote up a review. It's at http://www.pnwscuba.com/tripreports/bonneterremine.htm if anyone wants to read more about this place. It really is amazing and if you ever get the chance, you should do a couple of dives there.

great write up. Sounds like the trails don't change much. Very similar to my experience!

kitsapdiver · Post by **kitsapdiver** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 9:09 pm

Some pictures....

Tom Nic · Post by **Tom Nic** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:40 pm

Bassman!!! Time for a road trip?!?!

Great report!

Zen Diver · Post by **Zen Diver** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:56 pm

Oh, me too! I've wanted to do that site for years.

ljjames · Post by **ljjames** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:07 pm

Thanks for the write up! Totally on my must do list as well!

kitsapdiver · Post by **kitsapdiver** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:54 am

On a side note I am learning today that St Louis offers more on the way of Breweries than just the Budweiser plant. There are a couple notables here. Although they seem to specialize in Belgians and Wheat Beers, not my personal flavor

WylerBear · Post by **WylerBear** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 11:43 am

Got to Schlafly's if you get a chance. Lots of fun beer choices and you'll feel right at home. They definitely have a northwest feel there.

camerone · Post by **camerone** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:13 pm

WylerBear wrote:Got to Schlafly's if you get a chance. Lots of fun beer choices and you'll feel right at home. They definitely have a northwest feel there.

+1 for Schlafly's. Having unfortunately grown up in St. Louis, it's nice to see the beer situation much improved when I go back to visit.

WylerBear · Post by **WylerBear** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:47 pm

Camerone, I grew up there too although I haven't lived there since the early 70's. The beer situation is much, much improved which is nice since my family still lives there and I do have to visit occasionally. They are all devoted Bud fans so they think I'm weird when I order something else.

camerone · Post by **camerone** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:23 pm

Yeah, I still go back annually to see the parents. Bonnie Terre was where the open water dives were back on high school. I'll always have memories of the place. The gym coach was a scuba instructor so we got scuba lessons one semester.

Bud? Ugh. It's like having sex in a canoe. F***ing close to water.

Northwest Dive Club