Bonne Terre Mine, also known as the St. Joseph Lead Mine at Bonne Terre, is a historic lead mine located at Bonne Terre, St. Francois County, Missouri. Bonne Terre Mine was built starting in 1864 by the St. Joe Lead Company, and is located below the city of Bonne Terre.[1] It was abandoned in the 1960's when the Bonne Terre Mine was declared mined out.
Coverage[]
Bonne Terre Mine is featured in Depths of Destruction when 40 years after people seen rusting remnants of human civilization continue to decay underground but some have escaped the depths of destruction ravaging the below-ground. Douglas Goergens and Mark Eberhart explores and scuba dive the place and explains the state of the mine deep beneath the Earth.
History[]
The Bonne Terre Mine during mining operation.
For decades, men pulled million of dollars worth of minerals out of the ground at the Bonne Terre Mine near St. Louis, Missouri. Minerals like lead from the mine was used in car batteries, house paints, and to make bullets, the ammunition that was used from World War 1 through the Vietnam War. Douglas Goergens stated that the miners began surface mining in 1860, the diamond drill was developed at the Bonne Terre Mine along with the steam-driven drill which was use to many mining tools used in the modern days were originally developed at Bonne Terre Mine. Eventually in the 1960's, the Bonne Terre Mine was declared mined out and abandoned.
Scuba Diving Expedition[]
The mine underwater.
When the mining pumps shut off, the natural groundwater began to rise which creates dual underground worlds. Douglas Goergens stated that when someone come into the mine, it'll be another world and a place what one expected because it's much larger and a place where one will lost the senses. Huge pillars reach to a ceiling that's 300 feet above the mine floor but to reach the floor requires an oxygen tank because much of the Bonne Terre Mine is preserved underwater. Mark Eberhart stated that one of things that fascinates him is how time has come to the halt because so much of the biological world is driven by oxygen and it is a high octane fuel by which things decay and break down but in the environment where water come in and flooded it, it pushed the oxygen out of the mine and while the processes are still going on, it's on slow motion and life in the slow lane. The concealed in the depths of a billion gallon lake is a mining town frozen in time. Douglas Goergens stated that diving in a time capsule like Superman souring in the past and because one is diving in the mine, it's in crystal clear water and one of the very few places where one could get the feeling that the diver's soaring through the water.
A drill still sticking on the wall.
The staircase clattered with the boots of workers that headed own into the mines. Shovels, jackhammers, and drills remain were it left on the day the mine shut down. Mark Eberhart explains that they've left a drill right in the side of the mine, sticking out, hanging by the bit, and over the period of the next 10, 20, 30, or 40 years, it will begin to corrode which finally pull away from the wall then falls and sit down on the bottom where it'll continue to rust away.
The sunken locomotive.
The locomotive used to shuttle lead ore to the surface remains as a ghostly reminder of the decades of back-breaking labor carried out on the spot. Mark Eberhart explains that below them is one of the many tipples in the mine and the place where the ore car comes to a stop, dump it out, it's made out of some low-grade steel, and is serving as an energy source for whatever the biotic community is living on the iron with over a period of time, it'll use all the nutrients out of it which turn the iron into iron oxide, rust it, and would be gone. Douglas Goergens stated that all the things supported in the operations were built underground, they built engineering offices against the back of the pillars, put doors and windows, and put air conditioners in to control the humidity and the result being a basic office building located several hundred feet underground which is over a hundred feet underwater.
When it was time for a break, miners didn't head for the surface and instead, stayed below, once visiting a drinking fountain that's overflowing and a locker room once home to the chatter and clatter of miners hoping to survive just one more day in a deathly still. The episode questions why the mine was abandoned before answering to itself that everything was left behind in the name pf progress. Douglas Goergens stated that there's no need to harvest any of the equipment like pickaxes and shovels where it doesn't use it anymore and the modern mines all have loaders with the last thing a miner wants to do steal a shovel from a mine so meaning one will have to dig more when one gets home making it what's the use.
Mark Eberhart showing a railroad tie.
The Bonne Terre Mine is filled with examples of how different environments lead to vastly different decays rate. Mark Eberhart shows what's the action in the fast lane's like and a railroad tie, which is rotting, got a biotic community living it which turns into powder because it's feeding on oxygen then use it as the oxidizer as opposed to the stuff underwater which hasn't got access which means it'll be gone in a few more years while the stuff underwater doesn't looks like it's even been touched making it a difference.
Conclusion[]
In the modern day, the Bonne Terre Mine is used as a scuba resort and divers from all over the world come to witness firsthand the processes that have a big impact on life after people. Mark Eberhart stated that there are small pieces of iron flaking off and the process is happening slowly than it would be happening out in the real world where big hunks of iron rust away and fall off but in the Bonne Terre Mine, it's just little flakes over a long time. Man excavated the Bonne Terre Mine making it a punctured hole in the earth and after people, it will remain as a watery time capsule.
Gallery[]
