Northern Caves

[DudleyNMU]

I have a questions about somthing i have been wondering for a while. Is there any cave diving in the great lakes region. I was just wondering if its all mostly florida mexico ect. Or is there cave diving up north also. Thanks guys...

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I heard some instructors at a local shop talk about "cave" diving in Missouri. I think it's actually abandoned mines, not caves. I'm not talking about Bonne Terre here. I'm talking about mines that are open to certified cave divers only. I know nothing about their location and how accessible they are. Missouri certainly isn't in the Great Lakes region, but it's closer (for some) than Florida.

 

[JimC]

There is cave diving everywhere. If you are willing to put in the time and effort, and dive in stuff most people wouldn't.

 

[chevv58]

Agreed with JimC. However, Florida, Mexico, and parts of Europe have the largest caves. I know here in the Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota area, there are a handful of caves on private property. But, they are usually grossly underdeveloped compared to the geological activity of other "cave" areas, and thus usually require sidemount or even no mount configurations, they are en entirly different animal. But they still are caves.

And as far as mines go, we have a couple in Wisconsin that have flooded out, and they are still fun to dive, vis is nothing compared to the crystal clear waters of north central Florida. But, they still aree pretty cool, especially is they have some old equipment in them, it's kinda like combining wreck diving and cave diving.

 

[espruell]

Where are those flooded mines in Wisconsin?

 

[Hoosier]

Agreed with JimC. However, Florida, Mexico, and parts of Europe have the largest caves. I know here in the Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota area, there are a handful of caves on private property. But, they are usually grossly underdeveloped compared to the geological activity of other "cave" areas, and thus usually require sidemount or even no mount configurations, they are en entirly different animal. But they still are caves.

And as far as mines go, we have a couple in Wisconsin that have flooded out, and they are still fun to dive, vis is nothing compared to the crystal clear waters of north central Florida. But, they still aree pretty cool, especially is they have some old equipment in them, it's kinda like combining wreck diving and cave diving.

I know there is a Cave instructor who is teaching the cave class at the mine. However, I am wondering if there is any heavy metal pollution risk at the mine.


I don't know the Michigan though. I was told that there a lot of small caves in Mid-west (I asked the same question a while ago... you can search my thread). But, most caves are just simple muck diving environment unlike a crystal clear water in cave country or Mexico.

How about a wreck diving? It sounds like you are in the center of wreck area.

 

[do it easy]

I think the caves are different around here. JimC is right- caves abound!, but due to recent glacier activity I think lots of the caves got filled in by the glacial till. Also, in a very unscientific way, I think the karst got plugged up with clay!

So yes, there are caves, but it is much like Great Lakes diving- cold and murky.

 

[MikeFerrara]

There are some great caves in Missouri and they aren't mines...they're caves. They're plenty big and plenty deep too. The two that most people know about are Roubidoux and Cannonball but if you look around the rivers there are others.

There are caves in Arkasas, though, none with public access that I know of. There are caves in Kentucky and Indiana but the ones I know about aren't the kind that most people want to dive.

 

[JimC]

Well, let me add to what I said. Most of the stuff you will find is going to be sump, coldish water, low vis, insane silt and almost limitless original exploration. Most of the mines are going to end up rather deep, even colder and you can run into instability. But there are also the little gems. There are some water filled caves around me which you could drive a truck though that break 80f water temp in the summer. There are some with great vis until you blow 3 inches of percolation off the ceiling, walls or churn up the floor. There is one with 33000 feet of lined passage.

But for the most part its crawling though muck using your finger tips for eyeballs. Take a look in the latest NSS-CDS by Doug Hynes article (pg 12) for an example of what you can expect to find. Go easy, find a mentor - cave training from Florida/Mexico isn't going to get you far in this stuff.