While Onondaga and Meramec were created
by natural erosion over thousands of years, Bonne Terre Mine was blasted and dug out by
men, who did Herculean labor for very little pay. Once the world's largest lead mine, it
closed in the 1960s. The owners simply turned out the lights and left, and the mine slowly
filled with water.
Doug and Cathy Goergens bought the mine and reopened it as a scuba-diving center in the
1980s. The water level is now controlled by electric pumps, and the top two levels of the
mine are dry. Visitors can take an hour-long walking tour.
A visit to the mine is very different from the cave tours. The mine's tunnels are wide,
built to accommodate mule-drawn ore carts. There are no geologic wonders to compare to a
natural cave's. Instead, visitors see the first shaft the miners dug with pick and shovel
in 1864, remnants of the once-extensive rail system, and other gear left behind by the
long-vanished employees of the St. Joseph Lead Co.
The walking tour ends at the dock on the 17-mile-long underground lake -- a locale
suitable for a villain's lair in a James Bond movie. Stone columns rise out of the water
more than 50 feet to support the mine's ceiling. Floodlights both above and below the
water provide eerie lighting. There are usually scuba divers on the dock, struggling into
their wetsuits, hoods, and gloves, and you can watch, with envy or horror depending on
your predilections, as they jump into the 58-degree water.
A boat tour begins from this dock. No one need fear getting seasick on this ride; the
water is flat and motionless. It's also crystal clear. There are no fish in the lake, but
occasionally a school of divers passes under the boat, their air-bubbles gurgling to the
surface. As the boat winds slowly around the massive columns, passengers can see ore carts
under the water and spindly catwalks far above it. The boat also passes the framework of
one of the elevators used to raise ore from the depths of the mine.
At one point, the guide directs tourists to peer up into the darkness overhead, and you
can see a spot of dim light -- a hole through to the surface.
After the tour, as folks drive through Bonne Terre toward the highway, they may get the
uneasy feeling that the entire town rests on a thin crust of earth over this vast hollow.
Above article was published in the
Entertainment Section of the St.Louis PostDispatch. |
