West End Diving's "Bonne Terre Mine - Billion Gallon Lake" to Be Featured on the Travel Channel

Online, June 3, 2014 (Newswire.com) - West End Diving's Bonne Terre Mine "Billion Gallon Lake Resort" will be the subject of a piece on the Travel Channel. Filming for the piece will begin on Thursday, June 5, 2014. The piece will focus on walking and boat tours of the worlds largest man made caverns. In addition, the travel channel plans to visit the city which was the nerve center of the mine during its hay day when it was the largest lead producing mine in the world. The city is some 300 feet beneath the surface of the earth and 100 feet beneath the water on the bottom of the third level of the mine. The only way to visit the city is through a shaft on scuba gear and is considered strictly off limits to visitors and staff. The National historic site is considered as of one of America top ten adventures by National Geographic.

Bonne Terre the former mining community one hour south of St. Louis provides the gateway to one of the world's most interesting adventures in the middle of the United States. The worlds largest freshwater dive resort "Bonne Terre Mines Billion Gallon Lake Resort" is like a journey to the center of the earth for both divers and non-divers.

For divers it is a premier dive site that has over 17 miles of navigable shore line 200 feet beneath the surface of the earth making it the largest subterranean lake known to the SCUBA diver. Bonne Terre Mine encompasses over 80 square miles. Divers become deep earth explorers where they discover the mines 50 plus guided dives which cover over 5 square miles, lit up with more than a half million watts of stadium lighting. Thousands of divers and non divers alike have journeyed through its history both above and underwater.

Once the worlds largest lead mine, and now the worlds largest man made caverns, it is a time capsule into mining history. Non-diver visitors venture through the mammoth caverns on walking tours and boat tours and see what the miners saw before the pumps which kept the mine dry were shut off. This 500 foot deep virtual time capsule rich in human and mining history filled with natural pure spring water when the mining ceased, creating the world's largest subterranean lake 150 feet below the surface of the earth. Now when you enter the mine you feel a cool breeze and as if you have begun your journey to the center of the earth. All you hear are the occasional tour guides relating the history of the mine and the sound of the air bubbles from the scuba divers exploring the underwater time capsule.

West End Diving's Bonne Terre Mine has been featured through the years by the likes of Jacques Cousteau, National Geographic Magazine, People Magazine, Discover Channel, History Channel, Sport Diver Magazine and many more. Doug and Catherine Goergens, as owners of the oldest dive shop in St. Louis - West End Diving celebrating 50 years of service to St. Louis, Missouri and the diving community. They not only developed, own and operate Bonne Terre Mine but have also developed the 1909 Depot, also in Bonne Terre as a Bed & Breakfast Inn which is located within a historic train depot that is listed on the national register of historic places and the Maya Palms Resort on the pristine Meso-American Barrier Reef south of Cancun in Costa Maya, Mexico. The Maya Palms Resort is rapidly becoming the premier dive destinations in the Caribbean.