In the vast underground labyrinth, nothing moves. Only a steady drip of water is heard in the Billion Gallon Lake. There will be a low, rumbling sound later as pumps remove the inch of water that has accumulated over night, but right now, Bonnie and Terry can only tell one second from another by the constant drips.
These two smallmouth basses didn’t always have it so easy. It was almost a decade back that these two smallmouth bass lived in a Missouri lake, amidst the typical fishy fears. Is this the day that we will be eaten? What will be our next meal? What vile creature will be lurking around the corner next?
The Billion Gallon Lake, which fills the three lower levels of the abandoned Bonne Terre Mine, made life much easier. As the only living creatures in this lake, except for a few shrimps eating wood scraps, they became the top of the food-chain.
The days and nights are indistinguishable, as is summer and winter. Water is always at 60 degrees with no thermoclines or currents. This is ironically the magical temperature for Bonnie and Terry that signals the spawning season for smallmouth bass. It’s like perpetual spring.
It’s difficult to tell if they can remember the day of their move. Viewing the world through a plastic bubble would be a strange experience, similar to the view of a diving bell when air-breathing visitors visit underwater. All living things are unfamiliar with the route that leads through Bonne Terre Mine. The process of block and pillar mine left massive voids in the bedrock. You can still see lead veins which have attracted miners for centuries to the lead belt. The lead was so plentiful that native civilizations found it on the surface, and used it as tools and weapons. Steam power, explosives and teams of mules worked together to extract the entire deposit in 100 years, starting in the 1860s. One of the richest deposits in lead is all that remains. The seams on the support pillars would have caused the mine to collapse if they were removed.
Do Bonnie and Terry recall walking past the mining vignettes on the tour? Do they recall seeing the New Madrid Fault Line which brought lead to the surface? This is the same seismic area that caused the Herculean earthquakes of 1812. Did they notice the crystals of multicolor resolidifying and seeping through the cracks?
The dock at level two is a place that our fishy friends will never forget. Here they spend the majority of their time being fed, and greeting tourists on boat tours of Billion Gallon Lake. Tourists only see a fraction of the 17 mile subterranean coastline. Bonnie and Terry are able to explore the entire subterranean shoreline.
Every day is not the same. Weekends bring in a new set of guests. They are the strange ones that dive into Bonnie’s and Terry’s house. The strange ones dive into the home of Bonnie and Terry in wetsuits up to 7-mil or even drysuits. Newbies spend time on the four first routes to get a feel for the lake.
The divers will pass the old ore wagons, the old elevator shaft, the dynamite box (where shrimps live in the best flavor), and even a stack of old magazines. Bonnie and Terry are familiar with the guides. They are the ones who have the powerful flashlights and come back every weekend almost to lead a new group.
Bonnie and Terry may recognize regulars. The regulars are the ones that came back to explore the routes beyond the first four. The ones who visit the steam engine and the timekeeper’s cabin are the regulars. The guides and regulars, however, have not reached the 5th floor. There are treasures, such as the cafeteria that was abandoned, for fish only.
Our gilled couple could have had a different outcome. Doug Goergens was the sole owner of Bonne Terre Mine, West End Diving and West End Mine. He had other plans. In 1960, when Doug Goergens opened West End Diving, he envisioned a life-filled aquarium. Jacques Cousteau, the legendary explorer and diver, visited.
Cousteau fell for the Bonne Terre mine. Cousteau had scuba dived all over the world, but he’d never seen anything like it. He said, “Man has adulterated Earth by mining it and Mother Nature has reclaimed the Earth, creating a unique ecosphere.” Doug listened to Jacques and stopped his plan to get more friends for Bonnie and Terry.
You can visit Bonnie and Terry in their town of namesake and mine about an hour south from St Louis. Walking tours are available daily in the summer, and on Fridays-Sundays at other times. West End Divers, a dive shop with a full service that offers deep earth diving tours and equipment for purchase or rent, is the place to go if you’re interested in becoming a deep-earth diver. Book a weekend and stay in the Bonne Terre Depot B&B.
Visit Bonnie and Terry and find out why National Geographic Adventure ranked the diving at Bonne Terre Mine as one of the Top 10 Adventures in America.