bonne terre mine tours - west end diving

Been diving here for almost 7 yrs. Staff is wonderful. They are what makes the trip so great. Trails get better each time we go. Love that they are big on safety. I run a dive club and bring my members here, never have to worry about them. Staff watches out for everyone. I wish other dive operators were like this. Safety first.

We stopped in for a boat and walking tour on out way between Poplar Bluff and St.Louis, and it's not an easy wall if you're over sixty, because you're quite a ways under ground, and no, there is no elevator, you go in the historic mule entrance. It was an interesting way to spend an hour, and the mine is full of interesting mineral deposits. I'm glad we went. The water was remarkably clear. I plan to come back to dive it in the future. the whole facility could benefit from a better step when exiting the restroom, and some better lighting in the gift shop.

Thank You for the Great Review!We look forward to showing you and your dive club the next set of dive trails. Which will include the "Structure",, "Grading" and much more.We charge for weights because it is very expensive to maintain a large inventory of weights 200 feet underground. We have them available to rent for the convenience of divers who do not wish to carry them in and out of the Mine.Congratulations! You have joined Diving's Elite.You are now "Deep Earth Divers"

Thank you for the great review, I am happy that you found your dive computer in your drysuit.We look forward to having you back. You are now a "Deep Earth Diver"

We appreciate your review.The last old Miner, Earl, guided tours for us until 2012. The Town of Bonne Terre is a hidden gem with it's friendly people, and close proximity to many parks, attractions, restaurants, and wineries.

This review by Jodi of Columbus Scuba is inaccurate. This incident occurred two years ago. A diving guest with Columbus Scuba told Bonne Terre Mine staff and an owner, that her camera was missing. The guest was asked to leave her name and phone number in case it was found. Melissa, an owner of Columbus Scuba, angrily interfered in the conversation, accusing the BTM staff of stealing the camera, and demanding that BTM be responsible for it. An owner of BTM, told Melissa she was wrong to accuse the staff of such an act. The diving guest emphasized that she was not accusing anyone of stealing, and asked if a BTM owner would escort her into the mine and help her look for the missing camera, which he did. As expected, the very next week on a dive tour a customer found the camera while diving the same tour, and it was returned to its owner. We were pleased this missing equipment was recovered and returned. This year we had difficulty getting Columbus Scuba to pay its bill for their dive group. As a result we made a business decision to terminate our business relationship with Columbus Scuba. It is sad this guest and BTM staff were place in this awkward position by the owner of Columbus Scuba.We have many repeat customers from the Columbus area, and we wish this guest well and hope to dive with her again soon.

Years ago(30) it's was a booming attraction. When ownership changed to the diving company they let the real beauty of the mines fail. They focused more on their divers. Bonne Terre Mines is a beautiful historic site. It's a must see if your passing through Southeast Missouri.

The diving here is unlike anything else you've ever seen. There are currently 50 "trails" to dive, including a complete underground (& now underwater) city - where the miners used to live, complete with bunk houses, machine shops, theaters (3), and dining halls. Over 100' of visibility and the same water temp year round (58 F). The guides are great, and you'll enjoy learning a lot!

For the past couple years we have brought groups of 50+ divers down. The dive guides are wonderful to work with and help make the trip memorable for our divers. However as a dive shop owner, the headache behind the scenes to make this trip happen is not worth it anymore. Every year the hiccup gets bigger and is something different.The owner is all about money and his personality is far from personable. Each year we jump through his hoops and brush off his poor customer service. After this year, we will NOT be returning.I asked to be contacted directly about the problems we encountered instead of putting his staff in the middle and making it a very uncomfortable situation for them. I also emailed him to resolve the situation and have not heard back. Looking at a person as a dollar figure instead of person is a sure way to lose one's business! Apparently our business ethics aren't the same so we will NOT be returning!If you would like more insight please email me: info@columbusscuba.com

I took the time to read every review on the Bonne Terre Mine before making the dive trip with three friends. One friend is studying for Dive Master and has over five hundred dives, one had thirty dives, I have seventeen, and one friend had nine. We made three dives on one day and one dive the next day. We all wore wet suits. in three of the four dives, we had anywhere from a total of nine to twelve divers plus two instructors. On one of the dives, they combined two groups and we had approximately twenty divers along with the instructors. Based on my computer, the water temperature varied from 54 to 57 degrees on all four dives combined. After reading all of the reviews, I have to say, I was concerned most about the water temperature prior to the dive. I wore a 7 mm Henderson wetsuit, Aqua Lung boots, Water Proof gloves and hood, and Fourth element Thermocline sleeveless compression shirt. My worries were for not. I did not get cold on any of the dives. None of my friends got cold on their dives also. Two guys rented the wetsuits they were wearing and they said they did not get cold either. I only heard one guy complain about his fingertips getting cold during his dive. If I had to do it again, I would wear the exact same gear. About 25% of the people diving will wear a dry suit. Everyone seemed to have a good time and I did not see anyone complain. When you first arrive, you will likely see the other divers unloading from their vehicles. Go to the front office before unloading. Make sure you bring your ID and Divers Card if you have not already supplied this information when you signed up. You will have to go through a quick safety briefing along with a description of your specific dive. They will then tell you to take your equipment to the locker room and change. You will then meet at the entrance to the mine. Once everyone is there, everyone will walk the path and stairs into the mine. Contrary to what others have said about the walk into the mine, the actual distance from the entrance to the dock is approximately 250-300 ft. It is no problem walking down, even with your equipment. The problem is the walk back up in between dives and after your final dive. Once you are down at the dock, you can leave your equipment down on the dock between dives. Don't worry, nobody will steal anything. When you come back up between dives, you just wear your wetsuit back up. Based on many of the reviews I read, my buddy and myself chose to rent weights only. If you do that, you pay at the front office before you go down for your first dive. The weights are down by the dock. After your last dive, you leave the weights where you got them. If you choose this option, it is going to cost you $40.00 . I am a bit overweight and older so this was a good option for me. During my third dive on day one, I began to cramp up 3/4 of the way through the dive. It was my fault for not drinking enough water prior to the dive and getting pretty tired from all the day of diving. When I completed the day of diving on day one, we were basically told "If you are diving tomorrow, you can leave your equipment, just take what you want to dry up with you". Everyone was really tired that had three dives that day. It was a tough walk up the path and stairs. You will feel the burn. You then go back to the locker room and hang your wet suit up. They have dryers in the locker room and it will completely dry overnight while you are at your hotel. Don't worry. Everyone is honest and nobody will touch your stuff. My only complaint at this point is the size of the locker room. It's pretty small and gets tight when everyone wants to come in to change at the same time. Anyway, we finished up for the first day, left and came back first thing the next morning. We went down and completed our last dive. I enjoyed this dive the most other then one stressful moment in the water. Once the dive was completed, we packed up everything (minus weights for me and my friend) and took everything to the top. This was the moment where you realize that if you rented weights, it seemed worth it. Remember everything is wet, it's bulky, and if you have weights, you struggled getting back up. If you are young and in good shape, it's bearable. If you want it to be a reasonable walk to the top, rent the weights. If I had to do it again, I would limit myself to two dives a day here. If you make three dives in one day, you are going to be very tired after the third dive. In a few of the previous complaints, people were not happy with the employees. They felt rushed and not helpful as far as equipment was concerned. Nothing could be further from the truth. At no time did I feel rushed and there was plenty of time to slowly put your equipment and make sure it is on right. The most important factor the cadre considers is "Safety". They WILL inspect your equipment to make sure everything is right. If they spot something that is wrong, they will assist you in correcting it so that it is safe and fun for everyone involved. One of my friends had some bad luck. His BCD was leaking air, they went to get him another one. After that, his air hose wasn't working correctly. We got backed up ten minutes while they fixed it. It would have much easier to just tell him "Sorry" and leave him back. Instead they bent over backwards to make everything safe and right so that everyone could have a good dive. They keep extra clip on weights in case someone is underweighted. They check everyone when they first get in to make sure everyone is properly weighted. If anyone in other reviews has complained about the instructors and safeties, I can assure you the problem is either the reviewers ego or his/her ability to properly operate his/hers own equipment. If I had to complain about this place, it would be;1. The locker room is to small.2. It is dark under water. If you have a dive partner, forget about staying next to each other under water.3. They charge $1 to use the shower in the locker room. I'm sorry. That's just really tacky.4. The cost of renting weights is very expensive ($40).5. On one of our dives, they combined two groups. It was way too many people. Lots of people were running into each other. They should avoid doing this.6. Stay away from people using video cameras in front of them. They are watching the screen and not what is going on around them. They are constantly running into people around them and not paying attention to their surroundings. If you are very good with your buoyancy, you are going to love this dive. Especially on Dive three. The first long cavern on Dive 3 is intimidating. Try not to stress when you are in it. The cavern is long and you are thinking "No escape" if something goes wrong. Just give yourself plenty of space away from other divers and remember that if you have an air issue, plenty of other people are there with lots of air. If you get frustrated from other divers clustering together, back off a little and try to avoid being right next to others. They have a safety in the front and rear. Just go to them if you have an issue. They are more then happy to help and get you to the top or back into the game. If I had the option of returning, I would if it was local. There are twenty-four trails and we only did the first four. I believe they are progressively more difficult. I want to get through Advanced Open Water before I would consider returning. Regardless of whether I would return or not, I'm glad I went the first time. If you are doing multiple dives in one day, you may only have one hour between dives. It was recommended to me to pack a lunch and just eat it in the divers lounge between dives. We picked up subs from Subway the night before day 1 dives. I think that worked out perfectly. Otherwise you have to completely get out of your wet suit to drive down the road to eat something or just have an option of junk food snacks in the lounge.

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.I want to address your concern about our pricing.You knew the price of the dives, prior to making your reservations.The mine is a very expensive facility to operate.(electricity,personnel,lighting,docks,pumps, boats,insurance, buildings, compressors,etc). A comparison would be operating a giant aquarium. (public aquariums are funded by taxpayers) The typical aquarium charges $150--$200 per dive. You knew that weights are not included in the price for the dives.Over 80% of our diving guests provide their own weights.We rent weights for the convenience of those divers who do not want to transport their own weights to and from and in and out of the Mine.The price of weights is base on the cost of replacing lost weights, delivery of weights underground.,recovering dropped weights by our staff from 100+ feet of water, etc.Prices are based on the cost of doing business in a unique environment located 200ft. beneath the earth where we have charted out over 50 different dive tours. An experience unique to the diving world.We look forward to showing you more of our underwater world!I congratulate you on becoming a "Deep Earth Diver".

If your into diving this is your must see destination water so clear you won't believe it. And it stays the perfect temperature year round beats waiting until Summer or flying thousands of miles to find a warm spot. Plus they have lots of places to stay locally. Doug and Cathy are Super People just an hour from St. Louis you shouldn't miss it!Here's a link just copy and paste.http://www.alertdiver.com/Bonne_Terre_Mine

My father and I came out from Chicago for a dive weekend. We only had fourteen previous dives (they were all in warm saltwater so this was very new to us) so I was a little nervous about coming here with so little experience. while the staff are very nice, but there was a lot of miscommunication about what time to show up for our dives. we rented our weights so we wouldn't have to carry them down the many steps to get to the mine and made the journey down to the dive platform. They told us to take 10% of our body weight + 10lbs. for our weights, and that was WAY too much. It pretty much ruined my Dad's first dive. I can't blame the staff too much for this, for it was our responsibility to do a proper weight check. The mine itself is gorgeous, and we were very warm wearing a 7mm wetsuit, a full hood, boots, and gloves. I have to say, the overhead environments scared me MUCH more than I expected. I found myself breathing rapidly and I felt nauseated. after calming myself down, I enjoyed the dive very much, although I still felt slightly uneasy about everything. When the dive was over, I found that my Dad felt the same way, and the extra weight greatly discouraged him. We had a very long surface interval, giving us time to decide if we wanted to continue. We both gave it another shot, and I'm so glad I did. During the second dive, we were both more confident and comfortable in the overheads and properly weighted as well. The "keyhole" during this dive was incredible and it felt like you were flying the water was so clear. Amazing. The next morning we returned for another dive. This one was even better than the last. The majority of it was in and overhead, but it was no longer a problem. however, I experienced ear problems about half way through the dive and had to surface early. I was very reluctant about this because I was having a great time. We were planning another dive, but I unfortunately had to sit it out because I didn't want to mess with my ear. Overall, this was an incredible experience that I would highly recommend. I would advise beginner divers like myself to be very careful about the overheads, for they can be more panic provoking than you would think. I am very excited to come back next year when I am more experienced and can enjoy it even more!

We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend at Bonne Terre - they have a very nice set up. Well-organized, although by the end of the day were about an hour behind for dives, but we didn't have anywhere else to go so it wasn't that big of a deal. You DEFINITELY need to be prepared to get a workout in. We arrived 90 minutes prior to watch a video on safety, which I felt was a bit overkill but I understand not everyone takes dive safety seriously so I understand. The walk down with our gear was tough but doable. My issue with the dive staff started while we were gearing up - they didn't lift a finger to help us into our gear (which, when you're in thick wetsuits or dry suits, a little help is appreciated), or help us to the water, or really any extra attention that would warrant giving them a tip. They joked around with each other, not really engaging in any conversation with the guests (which we would have liked - I think divers in general like to chat!). Nor did they help with getting out of the water. Now, let me say we are all self-sufficient divers and didn't really need the help but it would have been nice to have been asked if we needed help/assistance with anything. The diving is awesome - very serene and beautiful. Their requirement that you have great buoyancy is, well, loose...if you dive here PLEASE make sure you can control your buoyancy. The groups are large, which means if you're at the back of the group, you'll probably miss the points of interest the guide points out. I can't imagine doing this dive wet - dry suit is the way to go in 58 degree water. In between dives, you come back to ground level and here is another point where they could have upped their game. There is a small snack shack, but I would imagine they could make a killing on some simple hot food (crockpot of soup or shredded meat sandwiches). We'll know for next time to bring food of our own (we ran out and got some sandwiches, so were set). I do think it's ridiculous how much they charge for weights - for one, who in their right mind would want to haul weights down all those steps with the rest of their gear, so I'm sure just about everyone rents weights. $40 for the weekend? All in all, we are ready to go back already! Make sure you bring your log book and let them sign/stamp it...then you'll be able to do a new set of dive tours when you return.

If you are thinking about diving the Bonne Terre Mine, stop thinking and go. First a huge thank you to the staff. I cannot brag on them enough. They are friendly, attentive, patient, professional, informative, funny, and if you can believe all that - they are also all volunteer! BRAVO to you all!The mine is amazing. But, it is a workout. Lots of stairs going down, a long path going down and of course the same path and stairs going back up. The water is cold! They say constant 58 and I believe that, but my computer recorded 51 degrees on one dive. I was wearing a 7/7 farmer john, hood and no gloves. I remained warm except on pressure checks and then would cool just a bit. You will be swimming - A LOT - so that keeps you warm. We had three dives on Saturday and you couldn't have paid me to go back again, worn flat out. We had one dive on Sunday and that was enough. Drink water, stretch, and get plenty of rest. You will have fun.Be prepared for some dark, some smaller rooms, and some over head ceilings. This is not all open water, but you will just move through those rooms and open water is never far away. Although some of the spaces can be a bit foreboding, try and relax, staff is in front of you, behind you, and even above you the entire time and they are vigilant!