BONNE TERRE, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com)—
Can you imagine what would happen to this planet if all mankind disappeared? What would Mother Nature do then? That's the question being posed by The History Channel show "Life After People". The producers are finding answers at the historic Bonne Terre mine. What exactly are they exploring?"How man had altered it and now nature has come back and stabilized it down here," says Doug Goergens of the Bonne Terre Mine.
Man certainly altered the underground landscape in Bonne Terre when they turned it into the world's largest producer of lead ore. The mining was stopped in 1962 and, since then, Mother Nature has been at work reclaiming her territory.
Goergens and his wife, Katherine, owners of Midwest Diving, acquired it for teaching their students in the mine's subterranean lake, the largest anywhere. They re-opened the old St. Joe mine for tourism almost 30 years ago.
History Channel writer/director Colin Campbell says it's obvious that changes are coming along there everyday, slowly, but surely.
Campbell says," "It's tough, sometimes, to think about a future without all of us here. But, when you do kind've put it in that kind of relief you do kind've start to see the impacts that our everyday lives have on the planet."
The documentary will take you to the depths of the lake and to the mine overhead which is some 150 feet below the surface.
Katherine Goergens is delighted the national spotlight will be on bonnet Terre, like when Jacques Cousteau filmed there in the eighties.
Other sites, like Carlsbad Caverns, will be featured in the documentary.
The ten-part series will begin airing in January with the Bonne Terre segment due sometime in March.
