Searching for the best quarry dive in USA

[Watterlogged]

I've been to the Philippines ... island hopping from El Nido. Thailand in phuket and bouncing around in the Andaman Sea. I've also dove lakes and quarries and diving haigh as soon as I can in Illinois. Diving is just one of those things that brings out the best and sometimes the worst in people. F em. I hope you get to dive a new quarry every weekend ! There is pennyroyal in ky .... it was an amazing dive. The people are incredible and there were 100s of divers ! (Not "real" divers mind you). Beaver lake in mo is HUUUUGE. Lake mich and Huron have world class shipwrecks that people come to look at from all over the world. Many at depths requiring tek skills (does that qualify them as "REAL" divers ? No shame in diving freshwater ! Get your skills on !

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Gilboa gets my vote.

 

[Rob9876]

Well what the heck, why not start a list. Here's a start. You know the drill -- copy, paste and add your favorites:

Scuba Diving Quarries in the United States
(and similar fresh water diving sites)

Alabama
Blue Water Park (Pelham, AL - south of Birmingham)
Dive Land Park (Glencoe, AL)
NASA Scuba Experience (Huntsville, AL)

Georgia
Kraken Springs (White, GA) - temporarily closed

Illinois
Haigh Quarry (Kankakee, IL)

Kentucky
Pennyroyal Scuba Center (Hopkinsville, KY)
FRP The Quarry (LaGrange, KY)

Missouri
Bonne Terre Mines (~1 hour south of St. Louis, MO)

Nevada
Lake Mead (Boulder City, NV)

New Mexico
Blue Hole (Santa Rosa, NM)

Ohio
Portage Quarry (Bowling Green, OH) - Closed
Gilboa Quarry (Ottawa, OH)
Natural Springs Resort (New Paris, OH)
Nelson Ledges Quarry (Garrettsville, OH)
White Star Quarry (Gibsonburg, OH)

Pennsylvania
Dutch Springs (Bethlehem, PA)
Willow Springs Park (Richland, PA)

South Carolina
Lake Jocassee man-made lake (near Salem, SC)
Lake Thurmond (Clarks Hill, SC)

Tennessee
Gray Quarry (near Johnson City)
Loch Low-Minn (Athens, TN)
Martha's Quarry (Mt. Juliett, TN - outside of Nashville)
Philadelphia Quarry (Philadelphia, TN)

Texas
Athens Scuba Park (Athens, TX)
Blue Lagoon (Huntsville, TX)
Windy Point Park (Lake Travis, near Austin, TX)
The Meadows Center (San Marcos, TX)
Reveille Peak Ranch (Burnet, TX)
The Scuba Ranch (Terrell, TX)

Utah
Homestead Crater (Midway, UT)

Virginia
Lake Phoenix (Rawlings, VA)

Washington
Titan Missile Silo (Royal City, WA) - currently diving suspended

Wisconsin
Wazee Lake (Black River Falls, WI)

 

[OTF]

List is good but what we really need is a spreadsheet with columns for depth, average viz, temps, number/quality of wrecks...

Dutch is the only (legal) quarry I've done, curious how it stacks up against the others. I imagine they're mostly similar.

 

[Marie13]

Portage Quarry is now closed.

It’s Wazee, not Wayzee.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Indiana currently has at least 3 easily accessible public quarries that allow scuba:
France Park, Logansport
Phillips Quarry, Muncie
Hidden Paradise, St. Paul

The best one we had in Indiana was trashed by flooding from a local river and was never the same again. It has since closed. It was Blue Springs in Waldron. It’s where I did my OW, AOW, & Rescue. It was a hopping place back in 2005-2007.

There are a couple other lakes in Indiana I’ve dived over the years that aren’t all publicly accessible. These aren’t former quarries though so they don’t belong on your list.
Sweetwater Lake, Nineveh
Sunset Park, Linton

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Dutch is on it's way out as well. Sold to a developer who's going to put warehouses up.

 

[Rob9876]

Dutch is on it's way out as well. Sold to a developer who's going to put warehouses up.

The future looks uncertain for Dutch -- seems like there are attempts on multiple fronts to keep some provision for diving. That is covered more in this thread: Extremely BAD News: Dutch Springs likely closing permanently ...

 

[O-ring]

Juturna Springs in Frederick, MD is still trying to open (last I read they were dealing with permit issues or something), but if and when it opens it looks like it should be pretty sweet as far as quarries go. Maybe a decent, albeit far training location for displaced Dutch folks.

Juturna Springs | Juturna Springs

 

[GreggS]

Well what the heck, why not start a list. Here's a start. You know the drill -- copy, paste and add your favorites:

Scuba Diving Quarries in the United States
(and similar fresh water diving sites)

Alabama
Blue Water Park (Pelham, AL - south of Birmingham)
Dive Land Park (Glencoe, AL)
NASA Scuba Experience (Huntsville, AL)

Georgia
Kraken Springs (White, GA) - temporarily closed

Illinois
Haigh Quarry (Kankakee, IL)

Kentucky
Pennyroyal Scuba Center (Hopkinsville, KY)
FRP The Quarry (LaGrange, KY)

Missouri
Bonne Terre Mines (~1 hour south of St. Louis, MO)

Nevada
Lake Mead (Boulder City, NV)

New Mexico
Blue Hole (Santa Rosa, NM)

Ohio
Portage Quarry (Bowling Green, OH) - Closed
Gilboa Quarry (Ottawa, OH)
Natural Springs Resort (New Paris, OH)
Nelson Ledges Quarry (Garrettsville, OH)
White Star Quarry (Gibsonburg, OH)

Pennsylvania
Dutch Springs (Bethlehem, PA)
Willow Springs Park (Richland, PA)

South Carolina
Lake Jocassee man-made lake (near Salem, SC)
Lake Thurmond (Clarks Hill, SC)

Tennessee
Gray Quarry (near Johnson City)
Loch Low-Minn (Athens, TN)
Martha's Quarry (Mt. Juliett, TN - outside of Nashville)
Philadelphia Quarry (Philadelphia, TN)

Texas
Athens Scuba Park (Athens, TX)
Blue Lagoon (Huntsville, TX)
Windy Point Park (Lake Travis, near Austin, TX)
The Meadows Center (San Marcos, TX)
Reveille Peak Ranch (Burnet, TX)
The Scuba Ranch (Terrell, TX)

Utah
Homestead Crater (Midway, UT)

Virginia
Lake Phoenix (Rawlings, VA)

Washington
Titan Missile Silo (Royal City, WA) - currently diving suspended

Wisconsin
Wazee Lake (Black River Falls, WI)

Don't forget North Carolina. But I don't know if I would call any of these great dive quarries, they are places to get wet and practice skills when a trip to the coast is not practical. The visibility is not the greatest but some of these are decent with depths ranging from around 65 feet to a little over 100 ft.

North Carolina
Blue Stone Dive Resort (Thomasville, NC) weekends only April -November except by appointment during the week and off-season for groups of 8 or more.
Fantasy Lake (Rolesville, NC. near Raleigh)
Mystery Lake (Wendall, NC near Raleigh)
Lake Hickory (Hickory, NC)

We also have the NC PDRA (Piedmont Dive & Rescue Association) which owns 3 quarries in the state. There is an annual fee for membership which they send each member a key that fits the lock at all 3 quarries with 25/7/365 access. Overnight camping is allowed but the only facilities are port-a-potties, changing rooms, and staging areas. Each members is allowed to take up to 10 different guests twice each per year.