The Truth on Red Granite Quarry

[Hundrieser]

Hello to all,

There is a recent interest on finding the truth about Redgranite Quarry, so I decided to do some research on the topic.  I just had a wonderful conversation with the people at Redgranite City Hall and the Chief of Police Detective for the town of Redgranite.  The Detective's name is Dave.  He was extremely friendly, helpful, and knowledgable on the subject and history of the Redgranite Quarry.

Dave has worked on all the drowning cases at the quarry since the late 1960's.  This being the case he is very familiar with the topography of the mine.  The official documented depth for Redgranite is 210 ft.  This was verified by a Navy Tech diver a while back when they were searching for a drowned victim.  Dave said the Navy diver was brought in after conventional divers were unsuccessful with the search.  The Navy diver found the body at the bottom in 210 ft of water.  The diver told Dave the bottom tapers off to 210 ft deep right in the vicinity of the cement wall by the Post office.   

Back in the late 1980's there was a nuclear waste scare in the quarry.  This occurred when someone reported seeing barrels with nuclear waste emblems on them.  The Government brought in a team of divers with robotic submersables to comb every inch of the quarry.  Detective Dave got to observe the cameras as they performed the operation.  There were no cranes, carnival equipment, or deep mine shafts as rumors and myth had people to believe over the years.  What they did find was railroad track with old ore cars for moving the rock.  Dave did not say how many cars he saw.  The railroad track runs east to west on the quarry bottom.  Dave said there use to be a garage on the west end of the quarry.  There are old model A automobile engine parts at the bottom in that location.

There was a little diner on Main St. that had a nice old photograph of the quarry when it was dry.  I remember seeing it on the wall in the 1970's.  When the diner shut down the photo dissapeared with it.  Dave said some people have tried to locate the photo without success.

Dave told me of an old timer alive and doing very well in the town of Redgranite.  He is in his 90's.  He use to work at the quarry when it was in operation way back when.  Dave said he has some great stories, artifacts, and photos of the quarry when it was in operation.  Dave is going to talk to the man and see if he would be interested on helping create a historical document on the quarry since the city hall apparently has no historical records of the site.  Hopefully I will be in contact with him in the near future.  If this happens I will post it.

It would be great if these spots such as the deep hole, ore equipment, old motor parts, and any other points of interest could be marked and maintained with a buoy for future divers to enjoy and visit.  I live in Duluth, MN, so I will leave that up to the locals who dive there most often.

Have great diving!

~Dave~

[matt t.]

Dave, thanks for the effort to get the info, and for sharing it with us.

[Chris H]

Thanks for the info and welcome to Wiscuba.

Here is a link I just found.  Not much under water, but some other interesting information.


Does anyone have a kayak and a portable depth finder?  I'm curious and skeptical all at the same time.

[DiveCaptDean]

Dave-
I know you are going to drop in and dive there on your way back from Milwaukee..do you plan to stop in and talk to them more on the topic?

Deano

[dwitt2n]

....Dave.....very interesting...thanks for sharing.........

[moneysavr]

Dave
WOW  210' FEET!

Old timers old stories-cranes cars-boats-
a dumpster is all I have seen in that sulfur stink muck hole!
back years ago why are not all these holes like Lannon-the Lake church quarry-Belgium,Wi deeper than a average or less than a 100FSW?well pumping the ground water the cost & the  technology of the time.

I just cant believe with the mess of technical quarry divers that not one has penetrated the light sucking abyss of the RedGranite quarry!
I am just a newbie lake diver and my one hit on the bottom was to pull a overweight beginner off what I would call a muck bottom/wall edge? and my computer just gave me 90fsw.
It will be so cool to see if there is a deep section other than the supposed trench-guess that will give some one a day to do? a some what topo map of her bottom lay out. 
Dive safe Girls,
Big pools open!
Cold wet, dark, scary! and really rough so eat eggs for breakfast!
Brad

[matt t.]

:

[Vtach]

NEWS!!!!

The Upper RedGranite Advanced Technical Underwater Research Divers (URATURD) have executed an extreme dive to explore the mysterious light sucking abyss that is known as Red Granite Quarry.  This dive has been in the planning for many years and all the diligent training spent at Great Lakes wreck sites like the Vernon, Windiate, Florida, Gunilda, etc... have finally paid off.  Sunday, May 4th URATURD executed its first in a series of exploratory dives.  The dive revealed that the light sucking abyss does exist and really does suck light.  URATURD also confirmed that the mysterious fine silt layer DOES exist and is the most probable cause of the light sucking.  Further exploration dives are planned.

Dive dry, stay warm

> ;D

[DiveCaptDean]

Thank God for URATURD.........Without TURD's coming together to form URATURD....the rest of us would never know the fact from the fiction in our diving community.  Keep up the good work..and please let  us know if there you have opening in your premier group and what the qualifications may be.....

[Vtach]

Dean, it seems as though you are already familiar with TURD and its extension URATURD.  TURD is always welcoming new divers but the process is quite lengthy.  First of all you must submit proper documentation of training and experience with WERETURDS (Worldwide Endowment Resource for Education of Technical Underwater Research Divers Society).  After that you have a final review, interview and approval is necessary from the governing board of TURD before installment as a TURD diver.  I hope you seriously consider joining us TURD's.  We are always looking for good solid divers.

;D ;D

Todd