Iron Range Diving

photos by Roger Southwick, photo grout (words) by Joseph Reynolds

October 14^th 2006

Lake Ore-Be-Gone, Gilbert MN

There's a lot of stuff in Lake Ore-Be-Gone. The red line marks 110'; note that some items were moved after this map was created. map courtesy of Tall Pine Divers

This small bay (looking north from the boat landing) contains a rock wall, school bus, helicopter, and jeep.

We went to Gilbert Minnesota to dive in a quarry. On the drive up, it rained, snowed, and sleeted on us. There was a nice layer of white stuff about an inch think when we got there. We checked in to our motel and asked where is good to eat. We went to Adventures for dinner. Nice steak dinners. Then we watched Monsters Inc and went to sleep.

On Saturday morning we went to Pancakes House and had eggs for breakfast. Then we drove into Gilbert at 8:45, a full 15 minutes ahead of schedule. The other guys were already suited up and ready to enter the water. They gave us the briefing. Helicopters to the left, trains and boats to the right. Got it. They jumped in and we started suiting up. In a cold changing room. With some poo on the floor.

The other divers had already surfaced when Roger and I were walking into the lake. We waded out about 50 yards, ankle deep, then there was a sudden dropoff. Roger fiddled with his camera, then we followed the bottom down 55 feet and looked for the platform. No luck. No sign of the airplane either. So we went to the right to find the line to the boat, and there was the platform. We followed the line to the boat. It was very nice. Then we followed the line to the first rail car. It was also very nice.

Joseph checks out the controls in one of the rail speeders.

At this time I was low on air, so we headed back and got out. Most of the snow had melted during the dive. I took off my mask, then quickly put it back on to stay warm. The only garment I took off was my hood. We drove, still in our drysuits, to the next lake. We all swam out on the surface to a buoy, about 10,000 yards offshore. Then just before we went down, what's-his-name dumped the buoy and it went crashing down! We descended about 50 feet to a submerged city. After exploring a few minutes, we followed a line to the giant concrete pillar. It was big. Then we swam around the edge of the lake back to our entry point. My left foot was noticeably wet.

Those other guys had to go. Roger and I went to the third lake with what's-his-name. Roger and I ate our lunches and went in. It was a drift dive. We swam up current and saw amazing rock formations so stunning they must have been man-made. Also some fishing line and a golf club. And after the dive my left sock was soaking wet. So we went back to the motel, got cleaned up, checked out, had more steak for dinner (and fish!) and drove home.

The End

There's a skeleton in full dive gear on the deep platform in Lake Ore-Be-Gone.	"Yay! The snow melted!"
There's a large concrete pillar at Lake Mine.	Lake Mine has the submerged remains of several buildings.
A collection of bottles rests on the shallow platform at Lake Mine.	You can literally park 3 feet from the water at St James Pit.