Inland scuba diving made possible at grantsville's bonneville seabase.

• Author: Madison, Rachel
• Position: SALT LAKE AREA

Grantsville - One local couple has made it possible for scuba divers to get a real ocean experience without leaving the state. Linda Nelson and her husband. George Sanders, have been teaching people how to scuba dive since the mid-1970s. In 1979 the couple opened a dive shop, NEPTUNE DIVERS, in Salt Lake City to further their training abilities. Just a few years after opening their dive shop. Nelson and Sanders realized it wasn't easy for students to practice diving in an inland state. The only lake nearby that was warm enough was in a remote area just south of Wendover called Blue Lake.

Seeking a more convenient option, the couple decided it would be nice to have their own pace to dive that was closer to Salt Lake. Nelson says the goal was to find warm springs within 100 miles of Salt Lake to set up a year-round diving area. By looking at a geothermal map. they found what is now the BONNEVILLE SEABASE in Tooele County, near Grantsville.

"We found it on the map and finally figured out where it was by flying overhead," Nelson says. -When we got here it was a garbage dump, an unofficial place to get rid of stuff. Eight dump trucks full of stuff cleaned it up."

Nelson says the Bonneville Seabase has grown to be a lot more popular than they ever envisioned, because it was initially designed just for Neptune Divers' scuba diving students. People don't only visit the seabase to practice scuba...