Our Saturday explorations once again brought us to about an hour south of St. Louis. This time, we visited Bonne Terre Mine. The mine was once the largest lead ore in the world.
Now, it is most famous for the Billion Gallon Lake. Bonne Terre Mine operated from the 1800s to 1960 when it was abandoned and the pumps that kept spring water out of the caves turned off. Today, it is known as the Billion Gallon Lake with depths up to 120 feet. It first became famous in the 1980's when Jacques-Yves Cousteau filmed a feature there. He was supposed to visit for two days, but fell in love and stayed for seven days. Since then, the mine has been featured in countless travel and news stories.
Prior to getting to the dock area, we took a 40 minute walking tour. After walking down 68 stairs (yes, we got to walk back up them later), we entered the mines. The walking tour takes you through the first and second levels of the three level mine along the "Old Mule Trail." Along the way, our tour guide told a few stories about the mules that once worked in the mine. I'll spare you the details because it was pretty sad! During the tour, we saw what is known as the Huge Pillar Room, Grand Canyon, Trout Pond, Underground Flower Gardens, Calcite Falls, and abandoned mining tools and the old rail system for the mines.
The Underground Flower Gardens is an actual garden that is planted in one of the first rooms of the mine. It is maintained by the Bonne Terre Garden Society.
They lowered this boat through one of the old elevator shafts several years ago. To be honest, I was a little concerned about the condition of it!
Billion Gallon Lake
Our 20 minute boat ride on the world's largest subterranean lake was quite an experience! I was shocked by how crystal clear the water was. During the boat ride, we saw an old elevator, submerged (and perfectly preserved) ore carts, wrapped pillars (had been mined too much so they were wrapped to keep them from collapsing), and the old wooden catwalks suspended 50-100 feet above the lake. Our tour guide told us a story about how the miners were all fine with the height until electricity was brought down into the mine. Before that, they couldn't actually see how high up in the air they were above the rock floor. During the first week with electricity, an extremely large number of miners quit because they couldn't stand being up that high!
We happened to get there in time for the first tour at 9:30 a.m. Turns out, that's the best time to visit! Bonne Terre Mine also operates as the world's largest fresh water dive resort. Seriously, you can go scuba diving beneath the earth! If you are there for the first tour, you can actually see the divers enter the water as pictured above. The twenty-four dive trails are laid through out the lake. The lake stays a constant temperature of 58 degrees, so it's definitely a little chilly!
A few of the things said about Bonne Terre Mine -
Top 100 Greatest American Adventures by National Geographic
History Channel's Weird U.S. show
Featured in the History Channel's program Life After People
This is actually a good lead in for my story about Miss Bonnie. Once we completed our boat ride, we began our 10 minute walk back to the stairs in order to exit the mine. There is a small area next to the dock that is known as Trout Lake. Ten years ago, the owners of the mine decided to add 14 trout fish to the lake. 13 of them quickly died since there is no oxygen in the lake. Seriously - none. No plant life at all lives in the lake. One fish was able to adapt and survive in the water. Since there is nothing else living in the water, there is no food for Miss Bonnie. The tour guides pitch in with part of their tip money to purchase worms to feed her on their tours. It was pretty funny. Our tour guide just shined his light into the water, and she immediately swam out from wherever she was! She definitely knows that it is feeding time as she stayed right there until we left.
Somewhat of a sad part of the story is that she is known to follow the scuba divers. She often swims over the air tubes, so they figure that is her way of getting some oxygen.
Calcite Falls
Clearly, this sign is a fake, but the mine did indeed boast a pretty impressive safety record. During all of its years of operations, only 28 men died - 2% of the total number of men that worked in the mine.
I am really glad that we went. It was definitely a once in a lifetime type experience, but I have to say, it's kinda creepy!
I thought that I would include this. Back in 2007, Red Bull sponsored the first ever below ground wake boarding competition at Bonne Terre Mine. This is a video from the event. I can't even imagine doing all of those tricks between those large rock pillars!
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