Reposted from the Cardus After Hours blog (RIP).

I just learned of this yesterday and have to write something about it. At the Bonne Terre Mine near St. Louis, there is a massive lead mine that has been abandoned since the 1960s. It’s filled with a massive amount of natural water and has been the site of a commercial dive site for some years now. An enterprising couple who ran a dive shop 250 miles for a good open water dive site came across this unlikely source of diving inspiration that was a couple of hundred feet beneath them.

There are hundreds of tunnels, a two-square-mile underground lake and hammer drills still jut out of the rocks where they were left after the last shift clocked out. Take a look.

A 1989 People magazine article (an oft-quoted source for Cardus). YouTube video of a mine dive.

Time to add another item to a Cardus road trip. Braddock, then City Museum in St. Louis, then Bonne Terre Mine.