(DiverWire) The Bonne Terre Mine Treasure Hunt has become an annual trek for Scuba divers and treasure seekers alike. What started off as a regional event has grown into a one day festival for people from all stretches of the US and international divers. This year the Bonne Terre Mine hosted the sixth annual treasure hunt, and well over 100 Scuba divers braved flash floods and tornados to travel there. And, while the weather might have been frightful around the mid-west, the golden hue of treasure was shining bright just south of St. Louis. By Saturday night, the now reputed Bonne Terre Mine Treasure Hunt had delivered its mother lode.
This year was no different than the ones in the past, as familiar faces giant strode into the clear waters of Bonne Terre to capture the tokens that would be the keys to the potential treasure trove. Many familiar faces from years previous. Many of them with their secret tips and sure fire ideas on how to ace the treasure hunt this time. Lessons learned from previous attempts.
The youngest diver this year was 12 years old. Two treasure hunters were 13. All three of them walked away with a prize this year. It proves you don’t have to have years of experience to have fun and win prizes. The oldest diver was born in 1942. During that year Bonne Terre was helping win the war. Thirteen year old treasure hunter Brenden Moran was quoted as saying this was one of the greatest dives of his life. By the end of the weekend Brenden had added more than five mine dives to his log book.
During the surface interval, divers were treated to a nice trade show with equipment, travel and training oriented vendors. There was a lot of ‘talking (Scuba) shop going on. The trade show had folks from Dive Right in Scuba discussing wreck dives in Lake Michigan. It also had the Rocio del Mar and the Maya Palms talking about their dive vacation destinations. The Academy of Scuba broke out their Sidemount Demo Units and showed off the new way a lot folks are finding comfort and redundancy while diving Bonne Terre.
The grand prize was a trip for two to Utila which drew a hefty price tag of almost 15,000 token points. Brian Turnstone was the big winner and is heading to Deep Blue Resort in Utila. The bidding was a bit of frenzy, but in the end, there was only one diver who was going to win the auction. The trip was an all-inclusive trip for two people at an ocean front room with 3 meals a day, free nonalcoholic drinks free Internet, airport transfers and 3 boat dives per day, 2 boat night dives, unlimited shore diving, What a GREAT TRIP!
The folks at Bonne Terre do a great job with safety being paramount. Some of the safety divers earned their combat pay spending hours carefully watching all the divers plunging for treasure. And, while safety was the most important theme, fun ran a close second. Everyone was a winner at the Bonne Terre Treasure Hunt. Over $30,000 in prizes! Over 400 dives circled up in people’s log books and a great day of Scuba adventure. This is why the Bonne Terre Treasure Hunt is a perennial favorite.
Bonne Terre Mine offers one of the most unique diving experiences on the face of the planet. Jacque Cousteau said it best as exited one of his dives at Bonne Terre …. “Magnifique!”
About the Bonne Terre Mine
The Billion Gallon Lake is illuminated with over 500,000 watts of lighting, a total of twenty-four dive trails have been laid out in the lake, taking the diver through mammoth archways, past beautiful calcium falls, around gargantuan pillars and to the many abandoned mining artifacts. Depths of the dive tours average between 40 to 60 feet. Divers are toured through the mine in groups of ten by two specially trained dive guides. Super 80 cubic ft. aluminum tanks are provided for each diver.
