Red Granite...

[matt t.]

Chris H. and I were up at Red Granite in May when a guy and his wife(?) came by cleaning up the area. He asked if we had seen the crane on any of our dives there. He was a local guy and claimed to have been instrumental in getting the area turned into a park. This gentleman (and his wife) "KNEW" that there was a crane that was in the quarry and was probably at this point, "silted in" (I think he mentioned at some depth like 180 ft). From what he said his brother had seen the crane in the 70's before he quit diving. If I missed anything Chris can correct me.

DISCLAIMER: This is what we HEARD not necessarily what we BELIEVE!!!

[FreediveWI]

I've had a ton of dives in that quarry over the past 24 years and have never run into a crane. I have never been able to find a spot deeper than 120' in there, but have heard rumors about the "shaft" that drops down to deeper depths.

When I talked to Dr. Dick Boyd about this a few years ago he metnioned two numbers, 168' and 238', but no confirmation on either one.

Supposedly the shaft used to drop down to 238', and thus the offical depth of the lake on charts, but that it had filled in to a depth of 168' over the years.

Best location of the shaft, that I have heard about, was towards the back of the quarry by the part of the wall made up of all the stacked up boulders- as oppossed to the shear cliffs surrounding the rest of it.

I've also heard of a tree that sticks out straight sideways in the shaft, at about 140', and is easy to get tangled on in the, usually, limited vis found in that quarry at that depth.

Jon

[Omicron]

There is kind of a deep pit/shaft down in the back corner that you are talking about - it's where we found that one dumpster.

But, like you said, we could only get down to about 120 in there.

Of course, there could be a deeper shaft somewhere in there....it's just pitch black down there. Only a foot or two of viz and it just eats your light up. When we were raising the dumpster, we had three HID's trained on it, and it still wasn't too bright down there.

[FreediveWI]

Your right about it eating up light down there!

That black silt bottom, I think it's a mineral called hornblend, just seems to suck up any kind of dive light you have- even canister powered HID's.

There's such a huge difference between being 120' down in Redgranite vs. 120' down in someplace- like Lake Wazee.

Jon

[Omicron]

Yep...it still freaks me out on occassion down there. I've always got to remember to stay calm and breathe slow. Too many monsters in my head

[dfreeman]

The black at the bottom of Red Granite makes this the spookiest place that I have dived. When it eats your light, it can be very scary. Considering that about 9 people have drowned in Red Granite in the last 15 years (2 scuba divers I believe), this thought does not help reduce the fear.

I suspect that the idea that there is a shaft down there will mean additional deep dives this fall trying to find it.

Doug

[Omicron]

We do need to have the local kids throw some more interesting items into the deep end at the very least

[MikeS]

Does anyone have or know of any type of contour map of Redgranite quarry? Sure would be nice to see one.

[scubert]

Any idea what the current vis is at Red Granite?

Also, isn't it about time for freshwater jellyfish?

[Omicron]

I think it's early yet - it's usually October/November for the jellys.