Where is everyone???

[deep thought]

Word around the campfire is that there is a mine shaft in the pond, but we have yet to find it....
[/quote]

As Urban Legends go, there is a train that ran off it's tracks and sits submerged in every lake in Mn - that's a lot of trains!  So goes the "shafts".  I can't speak for OBG, but I have been in the mine shafts (both vertical & horizontal) and they are way scary!  The earth is very unstable, and silt rains down... If you have ever been to Capt. Johns Blue Water Park / Oronogo in Joplin MO (serious hillbilly country) it is an old flooded lead mine that has several huge caverns and air shafts to swim down - the mines in MN are not like this, most of the shafts have collapsed, or will upon entry...
Deep Thought

[scubafreek864]

Matt.T,

I would love to join you, but have other plans this weekend.  Doing some wreck diving in a local lake in MN.  Looking for a Sidewheel paddle boat, and others as well.

Let me know a little bit more in advance, and I can plan a vacation with the wife and kids out that way, and then I can go out diving. Wazee alone is 3-1/2 hours away from where I live.

[matt t.]

Sorry, I had no idea where you're located. I'm down in the Milwaukee area. We try to get up to Wazee once a month or so and try to dive Lake Michigan every weekend if possible.

[jeffberry]

Word around the campfire is that there is a mine shaft in the pond, but we have yet to find it....
[/quote]
Mike,
  I assume you are talking about the Fortune pond?
When you want to look?  I do know where ther is another quarry near there that has some shafts. >
But I am not going in!!!!!!
Jeff

[LKunze]

If anyone needs more info on the pits in MN check out the mnscuba site in the local diving forum.  They are a bit different from Wazee.  Ore Be Gone has a lot of stuff sunk for divers, it is mostly all in pretty shallow water though.  There are a couple of helicopters, airplanes, school bus, boats, railroad speeder cars etc.  Viz was about 25 feet there last weekend.  Max Depth is over 400 feet. Lake Mine and St. James Pits which are close by Ore Be Gone have 30 to 40 feet of viz.  Lake Mine has some old building rubble along a hillside above a wall in the 50 to 60 foot depth range.  Max depth of the pit is over 400 feet.  St. James is the clearest of the three places typically and has an awesome wall right off the boat launch.  Max depth of the pit is around 370 feet.
The Crosby pits are cool because there are so many pits to choose from and they are all a little different.  Some of them have large horizontal drift mine shafts at various depths.  They aren't stable so not a good idea to go in them but it's cool to shine a light in them and look around.  There are also a few vehicles in the Crosby mines that either went through the ice or were stolen and ditched.  The Crosby pits are in a pretty unmaintained area.  The roads are pretty rough but most of them you can get to without the need for 4 wheel drive or anything.  I think it would be worth the drive for the WI folks to check out, particularly if making a 2 or 3 day trip out of it.  The only location air fills aren't available are at the Iron Range (Ore Be Gone, Lake Mine and St. James).  For Crosby you can go to MSD in Brainerd which is about 15 miles away from the pits.  They only have air and nitrox there though so no trimix available.

[scubanut]

I agree, this site is getting kind of sedentary.  Maybe we should start an underwater poker club or something.  The water on the bayside is getting pretty warm.  Pick a couple of shore sites and get a group of people together and and rotate around every week or two.  Do chips float?

A local dive shop or dive club could do a treasure hunt for charity, people could pay an entry fee and get clues PMed to them through the forum and post results on the forum as the clues get picked up.

Just a thought.