Bonne Terre Mine | Suggestions

It's about a 10-hour drive through many small state highways and county roads. "Expert systems" on the web, like MapQuest, want you to go through Chicago, which is far out of the way.

Here's Dave Owen's full essay on how to get there. Quite entertaining and worth a read! Unless you're in a hurry, in which case here's the short version.

Where to Stay

The Depot is a(n) historic and charming old train station that has been converted to hotel rooms. It's on the National Register of Historic Places, along with its heating system. It's kinda cool (literally) but it's more expensive than other places in town. Make arrangements through the dive shop.

Where to Eat (or more importantly, where NOT to eat)

Missouri is known as the "flood state". If it weren't for floods, it would be known as the "don't eat the food in this state". There are several bad restaurants in the Bonne Terre area and a couple that are OK.

Bad	Good
Homestead Smorgasbord	Greek Seafood & Steakhouse (Leadington MO)
Pasta House	Warehouse Barbecue (MEAT!)
Hardee's (not any worse than any other Hardee's though)	Subway
Shamrock's Steak House - food is ok, but the atmosphere is very smoky

Breakfast

We haven't found any places for a good breakfast -- Hardee's is pretty greasy which doesn't help during the dives. A better idea is to go to the grocery store and buy breakfast supplies the night before.

Snacks

It's also a good idea to have some snacks between dives. Subway can provide a quick lunch, but you'll need some additional energy for all the hiking up and down. Besides, we can give some snacks to the dive guides who seem to appreciate it, since they get hungry too.

The Dive Shop

The Bonne Terre Mine dive shop has somewhat strict policies and requires full payment in advance, with no refund for cancellations. If you need to rent equipment there, they must know in advance. Please check their policies before signing up.

Log books and certification cards are absolutely required. If you've been there before, be sure to bring the logbook pages from those dives.

Despite these strict policies, they've always been helpful and friendly toward us, and our previous trips have been great.

What Gear to Bring

The dive operation will provide tanks with an attached cyalume light stick for visibility. The tanks remain down on the dock where there's an airfill station. These are 80 cubic foot aluminum tanks but they're shorter and fatter than the common tanks. Be prepared to adjust your BC tank band. If you'd like a bigger tank, they have 92 cubic foot aluminum tanks available for an extra $8 per dive.

You are responsible for all other required gear which can be rented if arrangements are made with them in advance.

Lights and dive knives are not permitted. (You can use a small penlight for reading gauges.) But, one time the guide offered our small group of experienced divers the chance to use lights, so bring a small one just in case. You can always leave it in the truck. There is plenty of ambient lighting so you don't really need a light.

Personal tanks are not allowed, but a pony bottle is permitted. A simple octopus for an alternate air source is sufficient.

Reminder: Those of you who (like me) generally use a pony bottle as an alternate air source MUST remember to reconfigure your regulator to include an octopus second-stage regulator!

The Hike to the Dock

The diving dock is located about 150 feet beneath the surface, at the end of 60+ steps and a winding dirt trail that extends about 1/4 mile. The air is humid and about 62 degrees F year-round so don't wear your winter coat. Be prepared to hike ALL your dive gear down in one trip. You're not allowed to wander the mine without a guide, and they make a single trip; don't forget anything upstairs. You have to carry everything except tanks, which are kept on the dock near the filling station. The hard-lead rental weights are kept on the dock too, but if you bring your own you hike them down. I'd suggest using a gear bag with padded shoulder straps. Try to distribute the weight for a comfortable hike. On our past trips they allowed us to keep our gear down on the dock between dives. During the off-season when it wasn't busy they allowed us to store our stuff on the dock overnight if we dove on both Saturday and Sunday. Since no one is allowed in the mine unescorted, it's a pretty secure place; just try to keep your stuff in a neat pile under the bench so it doesn't get lost. And don't drop anything off the dock -- it's 175 feet deep here.

Suiting Up

Those of us with drysuits have simply donned our suits on the dock; it seems easier than carrying all your stuff down while half-wearing a drysuit, getting all sweaty. Most divers in wetsuits will suit up on the surface and hike down in their suits. I guess it's your personal preference.

The Dives

The dives are about 45 minutes long with a depth around 60 feet. Water temperature is about 58ºF year-round. On trail 1 they have you pair off in a shallow area and demonstrate some skills: mask clearing and breathing from your buddy's alternate air source. They have a guide in the front of the group and a safety diver at the rear. The guide makes several stops to check everyone's remaining air, dividing the group into those with enough air to continue on and those who need to head back with the safety diver (who then miraculously returns to join the group). There's plenty of ambient light provided by overhead lights, above water on the ceiling of the mine. You can't bring a big light, but they'll allow a small penlight for reading your gauges. (You don't really need a big light, since the guide has one for pointing things out; plus the ambient light looks really cool, with ghostly silhouettes in the distance.) On the first few trails there are some places with an overhead environment, so be prepared to exhibit good buoyancy control.

Between Dives

We've been allowed to leave our stuff down at the dock between dives. We'd come out of the mine for our surface intervals, when we can have snacks or lunch. (We like to stock up on snacky-cakes to share with our guides at the end of the day. They were impressed with our generosity and with our ability to eat continuously.)

Suggestions for diving at Bonne Terre Mine

How to Get There