Hi Howard: The reason why I elected to dive this flooded mine is mystery. It has not been dove in a dozen years, and then it was by police searching for a murder victim's body. Three are known to have been lost there, never found. The history of the mine itself from it's origins in 1853 thru the closing in 1897, the deaths of thirteen miners in 1895 by a collapse (all recovered). The extreme depth, originally 725', now unknown, because of collapse and filling in of debris. Mine was dumped into until 1940's. The Navy used it as a testing ground for sonar during the 1950's. The
mystery of why a commercial diving school constructed a
considerable pontoon dive platform and steel stairwell in the 1980's and then abandoned, why is there such clean water in spite of cars, tractor, crane and heavy machinery dumped in there as
well as junk for over twenty years? The water has been tested as
drinkable. Where is the strong spring coming from and the heavy
currents at depth? Some other reasons are the testing of dive equipment in hostile conditions, as the water temps are 46 degrees from about 15' down to the bottom, example is testing the DUI "Blue Heat" system for hours on end decompressing. Practicing staged bailout, testing the Hammerhead Extreme's Rev D electronics at greater depths in very cold conditions. This stuff is not done very often. I personally love diving wrecks offshore, in blue water and great visibility. They make for fantastic photos, this is not the same, but there is a different agenda. Dive safe and often....