Mollie Mines

I recently went home to St. Louis, Missouri to surprise my dad for Father's Day. I took him and my mom to spend the day in the old mining town of Bonne Terre, Missouri which is part of the Old Lead Belt. The highlight of the day was our tour of Bonne Terre Mine. The mine was the first in the network of St. Joe Minerals lead mines that led to Missouri producing 70 percent of the United States' lead. Neither of my parents had been to a mine and I wanted to them to have an understanding of the environment I spend a lot of my time in. One of the neatest things about Bonne Terre Mine is that three levels are underwater which is used for scuba diving. We did the combination walking and boating tour. The method of mining used at Bonne Terre was room and pillar which is essentially a large cave like room with pillars of rock left to prevent the mine from caving in. The tour took us to a portion of the mine where we were able to see old remanants of mining equipment and natually occurin