The second weekend of the 2022 Camping Season is in the books. This trip was part of Shaune’s birthday gift in January, so we have been waiting in anticipation for this weekend. Athens Scuba Park is a one-stop-shop for everything the traveling scuba diver needs. Forgot your weights? They have weights to rent. Need a thicker wetsuit because the water is colder than you hoped? You can rent or buy one from them. Not scuba certified? They are fully staffed with instructors! Are you traveling with a non-diver? No problem, unlike other scuba parks they allow swimming and kayaking!

Scuba Divers: $25 per day

Non-Divers: $25 per day

Night Diving: Additional $5

RV Site: $30/ night Plus $5 per camper (person) per night

We arrived at closing time on Friday evening. The park is owned by a family that lives on site. They were so friendly and helpful. Even though we arrived at 5 on the dot, they helped us check-in, fill our freshwater tank, and get into our spot. Despite being labeled full hook-ups in the pamphlet they only have electric hook-ups but they do have 30 amp and 50 amp as well as a freshwater filling station and dump station.  The sites are limited but we were the only RV so we got to pick which one we wanted. We opted for the second biggest one, closest to the water for obvious reasons.

We quickly found out that there are some things you cannot forget to bring on your trip to Athens Scuba Park.

• Bug Spray
• Citronella Candles
• Benadryl cream
• Fire ant powder
• Baking soda (click here for our fire ant bite home remedy)

While helping Shaune get into the spot, I stepped into a massive pile of fire ants. By the time we got everything set up my foot was pretty swollen, and we were covered in mosquito bites.

There are 5 main RV spots at the park. Some are significantly smaller than others. We opted in for a large one close to the water. The sites were not the common side-by-side sites you would find at an average campground. It was more of a giant concrete pad with random electric hook-ups throughout. If you plan on taking your camper and you have over 30 feet, I recommend spot 1!

After a good night’s rest, we made a filling breakfast of bacon, eggs, and French toast and started planning our dives. We went on a walk to try to find the best spot to enter based on the wrecks we wanted to see. While walking around the park we noticed a lot of bricks peppered all over the ground. We were also intrigued by the tracks that ran across the concrete pads (campsites). Being so close to train tracks we wondered if Athens Scuba Park used to be a rail yard of some sort.

There was no time to investigate right then, we had diving to do! Athens Scuba is a clay-bottomed lake with 37 underwater attractions. Some of the main attractions to see are a Dallas Transit Bus, a Hawker Private Jet, a 75-foot C140 jet, and a great assortment of other things like speed boats, motorcycles, and more!

Shaune is a certified master diver working on his tech diver certification so he is literally a pro at this. For me, this was my first official open water dive after becoming certified. Athens generally has clear water for Texas which makes it a prime dive destination. For reference, I recommend going in June through September. It is rainy season here in Texas right now (April/May) which dropped our visibility to 9 or 10 feet sometimes less (and makes ant control that much more difficult). We will definitely be back this summer to explore the rest of the wrecks.

Ever since becoming scuba certified I have been wanting a SeaLife Scuba Case. It is an underwater housing for your Iphone or Android. From its video reviews it seemed to be just what I was looking for in an underwater camera; convenient, cost-friendly, and safe for my phone. Shaune surprised me with it a couple of weeks ago!  I love the ability to dive, take videos and pictures, then immediately be able to post them to my social media without having to download them to my computer. I have an Iphone 12 pro. I recommend going to your local dive shop that has them in stock and verifying that your phone fits in the housing before you purchase one.

The SeaLife Scuba Case connects to a free app you download on your phone. This app allows you to use the external buttons on the case to take your pictures and videos underwater. It also comes with filters so that you can capture the perfect underwater photos. As a new diver, I couldn’t focus too heavily on the quality of my photos so it will be a learning curve. From our first experience with it so far, it seems the GoPro does have better image quality, but as I mentioned that may change as I learn how to properly use it.

I did a much better job taking photos above the surface!

Aside from golf carts, busses, and a surplus of boats, we also found a random system of pipes. To our surprise and despite being covered in rust and algae, the knobs on them would still turn! We swam all around them to investigate what they were for beyond the purpose to be an underwater attraction. They did not lead anywhere that gave us a clear answer.

After a day of diving, we made it back to Camp Chaos. I couldn’t stop thinking about the random bricks across the bottom of the lake and the grounds surrounding the lake. The original owner of Athens Scuba Park is on-site, so I set off to ask him more. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the stories he had to tell me.

When I asked him about what Athens Scuba Park used to be, a smile came across his face. He quickly went to his office and grabbed a laminated photo of an aerial view of what used to be Harbison-Walker Refractories in the late 1800’s to mid-1900’s. Harbison-Walker was the first factory in Athens, Texas. Prior to this, Athens was primarily an agricultural town.

This picture is incredible for its time. You may notice that there is no lake in this photo so how did a scuba park come to be from this? Well, while digging out the claypit, water would naturally fill in from the Earth. Eventually, pure water began to flow so quickly that it took Harbison-Walker exceedingly more and more time to drain it so that they could use the clay to make bricks again.

The buildings that are seen in the photo were torn down in the 1970’s by a man who bought the land after the factory closed in 1968. He sold the metal for scrap and left the property as-is. Unfortunately, this led to the land being used as the illegal town dump. Everything from refrigerators to couches, you name it and you could find it here. The original concrete remains along with the tracks which are where the RV sites are today. We now know that these were cart tracks used to haul bricks and materials through the factory. We learned that the random system of pipes underwater, wasn’t so random after all. It was a pump they used to pump water from the claypit!

The bricks Harbison- Walker produced were not just any bricks. They were fire bricks made from a rare white clay that was found in the clay pit. This means they can withstand the heat! Now it gets hot in Texas and a brick factory uses heat to make their product. How did they cool off the grounds? Underground tunnels of course! There is a series of tunnels under the ground side-by-side made from brick running all the way from the factory to the old train tracks. In theory, engineers designed these tunnels to run water through to cool off the concrete above.

Despite the science behind this, some speculate that these tunnel systems were part of the underground railroad. The fact that the tunnels run from the old train tracks to the brick factory is peculiar. The entrances and exits to the tunnels have been filled in for safety reasons now. However, here recently, while using a forklift to move lead, Wilcher (the owner of Athens Scuba Park) broke through the ground into one of these tunnels. This allowed me to get exclusive footage of the inside of these tunnels.

If you look through the bricks, you are able to see the adjacent tunnel!

What do you think the tunnels were for, brilliant engineering to keep the ground cool or for the underground railroad? Only history can tell us!

If you travel into downtown Athens, you will find some of the original pieces used in the Harbison- Walker Brick Factory. If you are history buffs like us, I recommend going to visit. It is very cool to see these pieces of history!

After years of back-breaking hard work, Athens Scuba Park came to be. All the way down to the trees you see on the grounds have been put in place by the owners. The water is truly a hidden oasis in north Texas. After all is said and done, we will be back as long as we can reserve site one. Scuba diving is the main reason to come here so despite the fire ants and no water hook-ups, you can’t beat the convenience of getting your wet suit on in the AC and having a short walk down to the dock! While this isn’t a campground, I would recommend for any reason other than to scuba dive, the convenience of your RV being on