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s I slowly navigate the
Redwood Forest
, the
silhouette of a diver passes overhead. I’m not
following in the footsteps of John Muir but
in the fin kicks of Jacques Cousteau. Massive
pillars of rock, reminiscent of those famed trees of Northern
California, tower upward from the dark depths of Bonne
Terre Mine. Cousteau visited here in 1983 with a film team,
and I’ve come to explore these shadowy passages for myself.
Bonne Terre, Mo., is located about an hour south of St.
Louis, and at the turn of the 20
th
century it was home to the
world’s leading producer of lead ore. The lead mine closed in
1961, and the pumps that kept the tunnels dry were turned
off. Sprawling beneath the city of nearly 7,000 people, the
mine filled with water that covered all but its uppermost layer.
Doug and Cathy Goergens, owners of West End Diving in
Bridgeton, Mo., purchased the mine in 1980 and developed
it for scuba diving a year later. The mine is now one of the
most unique dive destinations in the world.
Divers begin their adventure entering a nondescript,
aluminum-sided building marked “Mule Entrance.” It looks
more like a garden shed than a gateway to the abyss, giving
little indication of the spectacular world to be found below.
(In fact, some of the underwater scenes of James Cameron’s
sci-fi epic The Abyss were filmed at the mine.) After a five-
minute walk along the Old Mule Trail, divers arrive at the
dive dock to prepare for their descent.
There are 28 established trails laid out through Bonne
Terre Mine, but with enough experience diving there, lucky
divers may get to experience a “Bear trail.” Seldom the same,
Bear trails are dives guided by Scott “Bear” Fritz, the mine’s
director of training. Fritz has been exploring and guiding
visitors in the mine for more than 20 years. He can tell you
where every rock, shovel, tipple, ore cart, arch and tunnel is
located. He has a photographic memory of the mine’s features
and can seemingly recite them all in one breath. While his
predive briefing may sound confusing — try to remember
where
Big Flat Rock
is in relation to the
Ladder Room
—
Fritz has an uncanny ability to make you feel safe. And safe is
what I want to feel on a Bear-trail dive as we explore some of
the mine’s most unusual and least-visited areas.
Our adventure begins modestly with a dive to
The Structure
— an old elevator shaft and one of the mine’s most distinctive
features. Upon first descent one immediately understands why
they call diving here a “deep earth adventure.” It’s dark. And
I don’t mean dark like swimming through the shadow of a
shipwreck dark. I mean freaking dark. Like pucker-your-bum,
where’s-my-dive-buddy dark. There are 500,000 watts of light
illuminating the mine, and just enough of it reaches the depths
T E X T A N D P H O T O S B Y A N D Y M O R R I S O N
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WINTER 2012
LOCAL DIVING
BONNE TERRE MINE
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