Bakerton Quarry

[aquaman_06]

Hey Guys,

Anyone ever heard of Bakerton Quarry near Harper's Ferry, WV. A girl that I know had some pictures of this place in her Myspace profile and the water looks very clear. She mentioned that the locals there have told her that people dive it and that not only does it get rather deep there are underwater caves and caverns to explore.

I think it's privately owned and wondered if anyone had been in it?

[cmalinowski]

Hey Guys,

Anyone ever heard of Bakerton Quarry near Harper's Ferry, WV. A girl that I know had some pictures of this place in her Myspace profile and the water looks very clear. She mentioned that the locals there have told her that people dive it and that not only does it get rather deep there are underwater caves and caverns to explore.

I think it's privately owned and wondered if anyone had been in it?

Bakerton, West Virginia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[dvr4lyf]

I have dove Bakerton. I did my Rescue checkout there. Yes it is privately owned and you need permission to dive it.

Clarity when I was there was horrible. Vis was like 10' at best.
I went middle of the summer, bottom temp was 60. It is really beautiful though, steep cliff wall skirting entire side of lake. You can see multiple earth layers. Our group had a few guys with scooters.

I would love to go back!!!

[JayJudge]

IT IS NOT open to diving. There was an accident (actually, not an accident, more like a suicide)there a few years ago, when some idiot that knew nothing about overhead environments went into the caves, got lost, and that was that. I know this from one of the people involved in the recovery. If you even pull up near there with tanks they will run you off, or call the cops. One of the newspapers reported that it was 300 ft deep, I think that was the length into the cave. Deepest quarry I have seen was 170- and quarries seem to get deeper every time you hear about them. As for how to find quarries, about every 20-50 miles along interstates they dug them for the rock to make the road. A lot of these filled with water, are privately owned, and, with proper liability papers, and knowledge, are a lot of fun. We have one with a model T, another with a 57 chevy, and other stuff, some of more interest.
-J

[Straw]

Correcting this last post as it's still searchable and accuracy = safety. I'm an instructor and I first dove Bakerton quarry in the 70's. Bakerton is off limits to divers and does require permission to enter. It's a beautiful quarry as it has a beach and cliffs and the caves (horizontal shafts) are only partially submerged. The cave is likely indeed 900 feet deep as reported; a unique attribute of local quarries.

The diver that died in the summer of '94 was a very experienced diver attempting a complex, deep (300') cave dive with multiple decompression stops and staged equipment. According to reports (and a friend of mine on the dive) he experienced a catastrophic equipment failure related to propulsion. He got badly, fatally bent as a result.

[randy88k5]

Thanks for correcting that. I knew the diver that was killed. He was a very skilled diver. I had forgotten the name of the quarry until now.

[JayJudge]

Straw- I think we are talking about 2 seperate incidents. The one I had heard of happened in the summer of 98 or 97, single tank, listed as drowned.

[Athos]

I have dove the Quarry myself and if you don't go in the cave the deepest part is 32 feet ,visibility sucks and the temperature varies 42-47 F But overall it is a nice place to dive . Here is a link for the diving accident

Diver DEATH in W. Va -- newspaper article - rec.scuba | Google Groups