7 Responses to “Bonne Terre”

1. Smoke Assassin says:

   March 11, 2010 at 2:28 pm

   Im 16 am I able to use this product safely?
2. snagel says:

   March 9, 2010 at 5:13 am

   Treasure Hunt Scheduled for June 5, 2010

   Dive the biggest treasure hunt in recent history June 5, 2010 at Bonne Terre Mine. You’ll dive twice and search for tokens in four different areas. At the end of the day, we’ll treat you to a BBQ and then hold our auction.

   You’ll use those tokens to bid on over $30,000 in donated dive resorts, liveaboard trips, and dive gear. This event fills up FAST! Call West End Diving at 314-209-7200 to reserve your spot to bid on GREAT PRIZES!
3. tim says:

   August 4, 2009 at 9:34 pm

   it was great diving with ya’ll this past weekend at bonne terre mines and i hope i can join ya’ll in some of ya’ll diving adventures in the midwest………soon and plz let me know what u think about the pics i’m still learning how to use my camera ………………well see ya’ll uderwater
4. snagel says:

   August 2, 2009 at 6:36 pm

   I’m Back……Wow, what a trip. So, I promised a Dive Report. First, let me put out a small disclaimer since there has been so much posted about the Bonne Terre Mine and so many opinions. This is simply the ramblings of my opinion and with that and dollar bill you might be able to get yourself a cup of coffee. Everybody has their own opinion.

   We (4 of us) headed out on 8/1/09 to do 3 dives in the mine (trails 1,2, & 4 – why not 3? As we were told 4 is suppose to be a relaxing dive; so, after a couple dives that day they schedule you on trail 4 for relaxation). Let me back up just a little, scheduling the dive. This was a little odd. I called Brian to schedule the dive and although he was extremely pleasant on the phone, the transaction was a little “stiff”. Once I gave him all the information, he emailed me a copy of the schedule along with a copy of my credit card receipt. My instructions were to sign both of them and fax them back – ASAP. Compare this to a typical order on ScubaToys – I call them and tell them what I want, they ask if they should charge this to my card (which they already have on file) and I get my order. No faxing, no putting me on the offensive with having to sign things and get it back. Anyway, the dives were scheduled and we showed up. Check in for a 9:00 a.m. dive is 7:30 a.m. because you have to fill out all the releases and watch a short video on the risks of diving. Check-in went very well and I have to say everybody we met (staff) were absolutely great. After a brief dive meeting we suit up and head for the mine. They provided the tanks, but you need to bring everything else including weights or you could rent the weights for $8.00. My thought was/is that after you spend nearly $200 to do 3 dives, why can’t they throw in a little lead. This may seem a little trivial, but after you have to carry everything down 65 steps and another couple hundred feet of ramps, it becomes an issue (especially when you have to carry everything back up).

   Our first dive was on Trail 1 and since this was the first dive in the mine for everybody you have to do a safety check that included flooding the mask and clear and buddy breathing. This wasn’t that big of a deal and good refresher. Let me also say that they also checked your gear prior to every dive – I have to say that they are very safety conscious. After performing our skills we headed out on Trail 1. The water was a brisk 58 degrees and crystal clear. We first saw some mining equipment and then headed out into the “Abyss” (more on this later). I have to say that this was not really what I expected. For some reason, I thought that the mine would be well lighted including the water. Above water there were lights but it was very “shadowy” and below the water there was some light, but really it was a very eerie dive. The “Abyss” is what I called the multiple areas where you feel like you are suspended with no sense of direction – you can’t see the floor and only get faint glimpses of the walls. To be honest, this really freaked me out. I have dove in many environments from very limited viz in lakes and quarry’s to ocean dives, and cenote dives. I have never had any real issues with any of these environments, but this Mine freaked me out to the point I ended the 2nd dive half way through and my 3rd dive lasted a grand total of 3 minutes. I just couldn’t do it – my heart would begin to beat hard and my breathing would become almost panicky. I’m really not sure what happened other than the darkness and the constant feeling of floating in the “Abyss” – I simply could not control myself. (Before you say it, on the first 3 trails you are not allowed to have light) As I mentioned, they are very safety conscious. We had a dive leader and at least 2 safety divers to handle people like me. I should also say that we had a rather large group of 14 people (this is not normal – typically, the groups are much smaller). I can’t really tell you much about Trail 2 and Trail 4 because I ended the dives early. The only thing I know is that they have multiple overheads, several areas of “Abyss” and from what I heard, Trail 4 is not really relaxing. This is starting to become a novel, so let me see if I can hit the high points.

   Negatives – $65/dive. This may seem like a lot, but where else can you get clear viz in the Midwest. “Be prepared for the Mule Train” – I like making slow relaxed dives where I can see things. The dives I experienced in the mine were fast past go here then here. I understand they want to show you as much as possible so you get your money’s worth, but the dives simply were not relaxed and may have contributed to my freak out. If you don’t like overheads, this is not the place for you. The rule of thumb is as you advance through the trails you encounter more and more overhead environments. In fact, another diver in our group had to cut dives short because of the overheads – simply wasn’t her cut of tea. The walk down into the mine is a killer – 65 steps carrying your gear. The only thing worse is carrying your gear back up those steps. The escorts – I list this as a negative, but really this is a safety feature, but adds to your feeling of “lack of freedom”. You cannot go anywhere in the mine without being escorted by a staff member. I wouldn’t condone allowing people to just wonder throughout the mine, but this does become a hassle. Added to this is the multiple postings stating, you will be arrested and prosecuted for trespassing if you are found unescorted. Lighting. Maybe I expected something more, but they advertise the great lighting. It was dark and under water it was not lighted, but it wasn’t total darkness. Viz – I list this as a negative. Because of the darkness, you really couldn’t appreciate the clearness. Finally, the “crap” you have to go through to schedule the tours – I understand this is a business, but from the start I was made to feel I couldn’t be trusted and had to fax my signature back or the dive was cancelled.

   Positives – They really try and provide as much safety precautions as possible – gear checks, skills check, and guided safety tours. The safety divers follow the group, but I was able to surface for about 5 minutes without anybody noticing. I had to get my light out (which I wasn’t suppose to have) and flash one of the safety divers. The staff we were exposed to were absolutely the best – very friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable (by the way these guys don’t get paid – they “volunteer” (makes you wonder where all the money goes). Facilities – nice and clean with a gift shop, changing rooms, bathrooms, and many displays of mining equipment. (However, once again customer service goes out the window when you have to pay to use the shower) Viz, yes this is also a negative, but where else can you get clean spring water in the Midwest. Overheads, if you like going through holes and shafts, you will like this place.

   All in all, this was not for me. I traveled with 3 other divers. Out of the 4, 2 of us hated it and will probably not go back – the Abyss, Overheads, and Pace of the Dives are simply not for us. However, the 2 other divers really enjoyed the dive and are ready to go back. There has been much debate about the Bonne Terre Mine with heated opinions on both sides. Our experience proves that if you are in the Midwest, you need to try it. It’s not for everybody, but again it is a great dive for many.

   I’ve covered a lot of information and rambled frequently. If you have any specific questions, I would be happy to answer them.

   Snagel
5. snagel says:

   June 12, 2009 at 4:05 am

   Bonne Terre Treasure Hunt

   Original Post by ScubaSteve98 on ScubaBoard 6/6/09

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   Hello fellow divers! I had a fantastic diving experience at the Bonne Terre Mines this weekend that I wanted to take a moment to share. I must admit that although I have lived in St. Louis, MO most of my life, this was the first dive I had done at the mines. I guess I had figured I was too spoiled from living and diving as an instructor in TCI, HI, Malaysia, and the Bahamas to really enjoy much MO had to offer… That perception has definately changed!! I just want to take a moment and recapture the event of Saturday’s treasure hunt at the Bonne Terre Mines.

   The day for my group started at 7:00 AM for our dive briefing. Dive master Steve had giving us the basics: that we would all be givin a bag and the object of course is to get the most poker chips so that we could win the bid for some of the $30,000 worth of prizes! The black chips were the hardest to spot and were worth $500. The green coins were also hard to spot and were worth $100. Followed by blue coins ($50) and miscellaneous ($25). He ended with “get ready divers, we will be entering the mines in 25 minutes!”
   When we entered the mines there was a short walk down to where the water does. The inside of those caves is very cool and gives such a neat, peaceful experience that is just a break from the real world in itself. We we got to the small dock area we geared up and there were excellent dive masters on dock there to assist and keep everything rolling smoothly as there were quite a few dive groups. When we entered the water we followed a lead who was in a kayak and there were 2 divemasters in our group that were in the water keeping us safe while on the hunt. There were a total of two entries into the water and 4 15 min hunt dives. When we got to the site the dive master gave the final briefing then said “Divers are you ready? Descend!!” Then it was free for all! Down you went and hunting as fast as you could for coins. The adrenaline rush was definately eminent as you searched for the coins. It was very exciting to be searching along and then spot that hidden black coin (I found a total of 6 of these)! I remember saying to myself, “here is black gold!” The dives would end with the divemaster flashing the light to signal it was time to surface.
   After the dive the divemaster would clip the bags shut and we had to take our bags of “gold” to a dive banker to count them up. This helped prevent any unfair actions. The dive banker gave us our final count after the second hunt and let us know what we had to bid on the fabulous prizes.
   After that it was chill time! Divers sat around having some drinks and sharing past dive experiences as we awaited in excitement for the bidding to begin. They served a delicious BBQ for all the participants just prior to the big bid. The bidding was an exciting event led by Steve, who is a real character! This guy was jut made for this! The bidding process was alot of fun. I ended winning a 3 day all dive included stay at the Plaza Resort Bonaire!! I am so excited, as Bonaire is at the very top of my list of places I want to go. There were alot of different travel packages up for the bid along with gear prizes and a ton of free, cool little giveaways they would throw out in between the big bids to help out those that were not winning the big deals. The key point here is that EVERYONE was laughing, and having a good time.
   The Bonne Terre Mines are just so neat and unique. It is really cool what Doug (the owner) and his crew have done with the place. They have really turned it in to a unique town I can best describe as an “old western dive town.” I am planning on coming back EVERY year for this treasure hunt, and am planning on doing many dive tours through these mines. I can truly say that the Bonne Terre Mines has a top notch crew and a dive atmosphere not to be found anywhere else in the world. Doug and every single one of his crew are friendly and professional. These guys know how to have a good time and keep everyone safe. I look forward to being a much bigger part of the Bonne Terre Mines in the future!
6. snagel says:

   June 12, 2009 at 3:59 am

   Bonne Terre Mines Treasure Hunt – 2009 review

   Original Post by Fleep on ScubaBoard 6/6/09

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   Bearing the surname Packman has always been a mixed blessing. On the one hand people remember my name, but on the other hand, I have been fielding the jokes since sixth grade. Clearly I have a genetic advantage for gobbling chips (be they power pellets, potato, or poker), so I’m not sure that it was fair to allow me to participate in this event for the last couple years… But enough about my favorite topic (me!) and a little about the event:

   I saw many of my local diving friends, met a bunch of cool people, exchanged barbs with my old friends on the mine staff, chatted with some cute diver girls, and won a trip to Bonaire – what a great way to spend a day. The diving was great, the post dive suds that a few of us snuck in (¡¡Don’t tell Doug!!) were satiating, the barbeque was delicious, and (with the exception of NetDoc) the company was excellent. “j/k” NetDoc – Was great to meet you in person, and thanks to ScubaBoard for sponsoring this event!!!

   Steve Dozier and the rest of the staff made it look easy, but I know they put a lot of hard work into making this event such a huge success – as they say on the islands, “nuff respect!” Also the attendees deserve credit for their good sportsmanship and good spirits – everyone I talked with had a blast.

   Feel free to reply to this thread with your own reviews!

   I leave you with the following limerick:

   There once was a hunt at Bonne Terre,
   Even NetDoc was there.
   After finding some chips,
   I bid on some trips,
   And won a trip to Bonaire!
7. admin says:

   March 12, 2009 at 6:25 am

   Here is a great trip reported originally posted on the ScubaToys Forum on 3/9/09 by “Byteme” –

   Went down to Bonne Terre last weekend for a couple days of early season diving with a buddy and couple DMs who used to work at our LDS who have branched out on their own and arranged the trip. Jess and I drove together and left Milwaukee around 1:00 PM on Friday and drove down. Other than the construction around Rockford, people who don’t understand “Keep Right Except to Pass” and scenery that wouldn’t even make Indiana SE of Chicago jealous it was a smooth drive. That is, until we got to our Mapquest suggested exit… We were staying at the Super 8 right off Hwy 67 in Bonne Terre but Mapquest had us getting off one exit earlier taking us through a few miles of nowhere, trailers, 4×4′s which looked like they’d be happiest crushing cars and more horse apples on the road than other cars. We ended up – somehow – south of Bonne Terre, found a drive through liquor store and pulled up to ask directions. Fortunately we were only a couple miles away and actually passed the mine on the way to the Hotel. We checked in, unpacked and went to dinner in Farmington at The Spoke I think it was called. Brewpub with good food but below average beer IMO. Headed back to get stuff ready for the next day which started at 8:30.

   The two we were with are both DMs and instructors who have many dives under their belts and have been here a bunch of times – it was quite helpful having someone the staff knew and who could answer our questions / get us pointed in the right direction. We filled out some paperwork, gave the BT staff picture IDs and cert cards and then upgraded our tanks to 92 / 100 cu/ft for $8 per dive – IMO, worth it. We brought our own weights so we avoided the $10 fee to rent them. They had the two of us and the other folks added to our group sit down and watch a safety video – very exciting – and then our guide (Sherry – who was GREAT!) gave us a description of the mine, some of the trails, what we could expect to see and do. This turned in to a briefing for our first dive. We were then told to gear up and meet by the Mule Entrance to the mine. EVERYTHING is escorted once you pass that door, I’m sure for insurance purposes – someone; either your guide or one of the safety crew assigned to your team leads you in and out of the mine. Up top there are bathrooms, a surface interval lounge in case the weather is bad and a locker / shower area. Don’t know if the showers worked or not.

   The first trip down you bring EVERYTHING you’ll dive with for the two days, weights, cameras, exposure suit, etc. There are 67 steps and long ramps to walk down total drop probably about 100ft. ending at a “dock” where they tank fill area and benches are. We grabbed our tanks and got everything set up. Once that was done someone from the staff did a gear check before we donned our BC’s, gloves and hoods. Jess and I recently bought Whites Fusion dry suits but they haven’t arrived yet so she dove a 7mm full suit and I dove my 7mm gold core farmer john. We arrived at 8:30 and hit the water at 10:40. There was a good bit of waiting for everyone to get there, suited and queued up by the Mule Entrance so it was a little putzy.

   First dive was pretty benign, once everyone was in the water they did a buoyancy check to make sure you’d sink, then we surface swam over above a “shelf” in about 25ft and dropped down. The safety staff (2-4 people depending on group size who trail the group) or guide checked that you could fill and clear your mask and buddy breath. Once that was done we headed off on the first route. There was some fun stuff to see – this dive was a bit more like and underwater museum with ore carts, shovels, picks, etc. There were a couple points where we did an air check, if you were low you got split off from the group and either surfaced or took a more direct route back to the dock. Total dive time was 47 min, 57 degree water and I came up with 610 PSI after a 3 minute safety stop, 58ft max depth. Started with 2760 in a 92cu/ft tank. Cool dive, didn’t really know what to expect and it was a good primer. The only complaint, lots of people, lots of legs, too many with poor buoyancy!! however, on this dive no real issues with silting, just every time the guide stopped to point something out it was a cluster getting over there to see it. Jess and I hung in back and kind of did everything last to avoid getting our masks kicked off. On this first dive they didn’t want people taking cameras or dive lights.

   After a lunch break surface interval (bring food or head off to Hardee’s, Subway or other) of just over two hours (seems long but by the time you get out of the water, drop your tanks at the fill spot, get your BC, hood, gloves off, wait for everyone and get out of the mine, take off your suit that eats up some time) we got our suits back on and queued up like Mules again to head down. Same drill as last time, pick up tank, gear check, dive description from the guide, into the water for a brief surface swim to the start point. This trail overlapped the first a bit but there was a couple fun swim throughs and some more relics to see. Swam through a couple short overhead environments which spilled our air out so it looked like an upside down waterfall – kind of a cool effect. The surface lights they have provide pretty much all the light (other than hand held dive lights) under there and give a very surreal glow to the place. Our guide kept the pace up well so we didn’t get too bunched up except at the “keyhole” swim through. There was the standard air check and separation at two prescribed places again. This dive was better than the first – more stuff to see, a bit less congested and the swim throughs. Water was always 57 degrees, this dive was 48 minutes, 61ft max depth, came up with 838 psi left in a 100cuft tank.

   Same doffing and leading out of the mine as the first dive, back up to the surface for the SI before our 3rd dive. This SI was 1:23 in total. Seemed quicker because we didn’t take our suits off, just came up to hit the bathroom and get some fresh air. The rest of our group were done for the day so this last dive, trail 4, was just Jess, myself and our guide Sherry. We followed her down grabbed our tanks, gear check and into the water. We started where trial 2 ended and went down along the stairs that we followed up but turned a different direction at the bottom. What a great dive this was – made the whole trip. We got into the elevator shaft, got to a room where there are some broken, oxidizing slurry pipes which give off a white “smoke” that just floats through the water, a couple more swim through and relics, played with a plastic torpedo for a couple minutes. This one was so much fun, very relaxed, there was a short swim back to the dock at the end which we used as our safety stop. Total time 54 minutes, max depth 52 feet, 2900 psi to start, came up with 725 left of a 100cu/ft tank. Got out of the water at 4:40PM, took our suits and anything else we wanted to dry out in the room and headed up.

   Hooked up with the other two guys who had been doing their own thing and went to the Warehouse in Farmington for dinner. Good BBQ, LOTS of food. Yikes. Ate so much pork I got the meat sweats trying to digest it all!!

   Sunday AM started at 8AM with Jess and I hopeful we’d do trial 3 just like we did trial 4 – two of us and a guide. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. We had a total of 11 in our group and a new guide today. Two of the group were younger and while about 1/2 were experienced the other half were not. Trail 3 overlapped trial 4 a bit, had a cool vertical swim through, another short overhead “room” to swim through which ended with us then over that room so we could see our exhaled air slowly seeping through the rock – very surreal looking! This would have been another fantastic dive, just like trial 4, but with such a big group (typical group size is 6-8 but this is their busy season so groups can get as large as 12) we didn’t get into some of the rooms we were supposed to go into and even in very big areas it was putzy to get everyone looking at what the guide was trying to show us and poor buoyancy / standing on the bottom, etc. got things a little silted up and cut vis down from 100 to about 25 – 30. I don’t understand how people can be so unaware of others around them in situations like this, one diver didn’t see Jess at all, swam directly into her pushing her into a wall and never even turned around to see what they hit, I had my mask nearly kicked off a couple times and a handful of other near miss “hit and runs”. Again we did the air check at two spots on the dive and fortunately lost the major offenders but by then we were past the really fun stuff. Max depth 52 ft, 50 minutes, 2862psi start, 682 finish. The guide came and talked to us afterwords and without saying the words kind of apologized for the size of the group and pace of the dive. We still had a good time on this one because we were able to just hang back and relax, using the time to work on buoyancy control ourselves and look around at other things.

   One thing to keep in mind, for return trips make sure you get your log book stamped. That way you can pick up where you left off, for example, next time we could do trials 5-8. Since most of their customers are BT newbs like us they have to do 1-4 first so the later trails are less crowded. From what I understand they also get deeper and have more fun stuff to see.

   All in all it was a great trip. The staff was wonderful – all volunteers! This works out well because they know the mine and are passionate about diving. I’m looking forward to our next trip and giving the dry suit a go down there. Heck, we may even do our drysuit class down there this summer when it’s apparently VERY dead!

   If any of my pictures turn out I’ll post them as soon as I get around to doing my workflow on them.

   WOW this got long – sorry! Hope it helps…someone willing to read it all!