Went down to Bonne Terre Mine this past weekend for a couple of dives. The Mine is located about an hour south of St. Louis, MO. in teh town of Bonne Terre, MO. They have diving year round. It was a lead mine until I think the 60's. Once they shut it down they shut the pumps down and it progressively filled with crystal clear water. I tried going in there with an open mind despite all of the negative reviews on this place. I am glad I did because we had a wonderful experience and cant wait to go back. All of the staff there were nice and helpful. Mike and Rudy were the staff members that were with us and they were great. Two of the divers that were with us were newly certified (this being their first dive outside of certification) and the staff was very patient with them and offered them as much help as they could.
When you and the rest of your scheduled group arrives you will have a briefing where the guide will go over all of the rules and anything else you will need to know about the dives. Then you will get dressed into your suits in the locker room, which is up on the surface. After you are dressed and ready you will head down the mine entrance, which looks on the surface to be a tool shed. Once you get to the bottom after about a 1/3-mile walk including some stairs you arrive in the mine, which is a large open area. Almost reminds you of a small sorts stadium. Only take what you will need and not a thing extra. I would suggest renting your weights at the bottom for $10, wear your BC, and just carry your reg, fins, and mask with you. The walk down is fine but the walk back up would have been a lot more enjoyable without carrying my 30 lbs of weight and my dive bag. One you are on the dock you will get your tanks set up and get ready to get in the water. The staff comes around and checks all of your equipment regardless of your experience. They are all willing to lend a helping hand. At the beginning of your first dive you will drop down to the bottom at 20 feet and perform safety checks. This is done for all divers again regardless of your experience or level. The checks include flooding your mask and doing a mask clear as well as demonstrating that you know how to buddy breathe. Once that is complete you go on with your dives. During the dive you swim along and the guide will point out different points of interest. Things you may see are different pieces of old mining equipment that were left there and you may get a glimpse of the only fish (a Bass) living in the mine. The only part I didn't like so much was the stop and go follow the leader type diving. It still was good though. Water temp was around 58 degrees. I was comfortable in my 6.5 mm 2 piece wetsuit and hood. They do an air check about halfway through of all divers and decide where to go from there. Towards the end of the dive they will lead you to the exit area will there will be a bar at 15 ft in order for you to do your safety stop. We did Trails one and two that time. Both dives were to max depths of around 50 feet and both dives were between 40 and 45 minutes. n Visability was very clear. The way they have it set up is you do trail one before you do trail 2, trail 2 before trail 3, and so on. I have heard that the dives get progressively better as you move on. Some of the reasons why I could see people had negative experiences were that there were a lot of people diving in their group ( ours consisted of the four that we cam with and the two guides which was nice), divers do not show up on time, and also that some people are just not relaxed enough in the water. They do have a lot of rules that they make sure are followed. But there are probably very good reasons for these rules to be followed. Overall Bonne Terre mine has a good diver operation running. I would definitely recommend it others. I live about 15 min south of St. Louis so with this place being less than an hour away it is hard to pass up. Sorry so long but I tried to get it all in. Their website is www.2dive.com. If anyone has any questions feel free to e-mail me at CBKinger@sbcglobal.net. Enjoy!
King
When you and the rest of your scheduled group arrives you will have a briefing where the guide will go over all of the rules and anything else you will need to know about the dives. Then you will get dressed into your suits in the locker room, which is up on the surface. After you are dressed and ready you will head down the mine entrance, which looks on the surface to be a tool shed. Once you get to the bottom after about a 1/3-mile walk including some stairs you arrive in the mine, which is a large open area. Almost reminds you of a small sorts stadium. Only take what you will need and not a thing extra. I would suggest renting your weights at the bottom for $10, wear your BC, and just carry your reg, fins, and mask with you. The walk down is fine but the walk back up would have been a lot more enjoyable without carrying my 30 lbs of weight and my dive bag. One you are on the dock you will get your tanks set up and get ready to get in the water. The staff comes around and checks all of your equipment regardless of your experience. They are all willing to lend a helping hand. At the beginning of your first dive you will drop down to the bottom at 20 feet and perform safety checks. This is done for all divers again regardless of your experience or level. The checks include flooding your mask and doing a mask clear as well as demonstrating that you know how to buddy breathe. Once that is complete you go on with your dives. During the dive you swim along and the guide will point out different points of interest. Things you may see are different pieces of old mining equipment that were left there and you may get a glimpse of the only fish (a Bass) living in the mine. The only part I didn't like so much was the stop and go follow the leader type diving. It still was good though. Water temp was around 58 degrees. I was comfortable in my 6.5 mm 2 piece wetsuit and hood. They do an air check about halfway through of all divers and decide where to go from there. Towards the end of the dive they will lead you to the exit area will there will be a bar at 15 ft in order for you to do your safety stop. We did Trails one and two that time. Both dives were to max depths of around 50 feet and both dives were between 40 and 45 minutes. n Visability was very clear. The way they have it set up is you do trail one before you do trail 2, trail 2 before trail 3, and so on. I have heard that the dives get progressively better as you move on. Some of the reasons why I could see people had negative experiences were that there were a lot of people diving in their group ( ours consisted of the four that we cam with and the two guides which was nice), divers do not show up on time, and also that some people are just not relaxed enough in the water. They do have a lot of rules that they make sure are followed. But there are probably very good reasons for these rules to be followed. Overall Bonne Terre mine has a good diver operation running. I would definitely recommend it others. I live about 15 min south of St. Louis so with this place being less than an hour away it is hard to pass up. Sorry so long but I tried to get it all in. Their website is www.2dive.com. If anyone has any questions feel free to e-mail me at CBKinger@sbcglobal.net. Enjoy!
King
