Photo by Steve Cornelius
Diver’ s Den: Four decades of diving, recovery, and community service
By Steve Cornelius
Located just past Stoplight 29 at 5454 South U. S. 27, Diver’ s Den has become the area’ s foremost destination for scuba diving equipment and support. Being in business for nearly 40 years in the southern part of Pulaski County, Diver’ s Den has become so much more than just a scuba haven.
Diver’ s Den, adorned with“ diver down” flags atop its building, sells and rents all your deep-water diving needs. It also offers scuba diving instruction and certification; Diver’ s Den is a recognized Professional Association of Diving Instructors training facility.
In fact, current owner and operator Dean Littrell was part of Diver’ s
Den’ s first scuba diving training groups. Once Littrell learned to scuba dive, he spent almost every free moment he had hanging out at Diver’ s Den’ s old location at Grand Central Plaza. Littrell spent so much time at the local scuba shop that the owner put him to work there. And it wasn’ t long before Littrell became the proud owner of the local Diver’ s Den business.
“ I bought this business from the previous owners about 38 years ago,” said Littell.“ At that time, I was passionate about scuba diving, but soon I realized this would be just a part-time job.”
In the beginning, Littrell kept his full-time factory job to help keep his Diver’ s Den business afloat. Like he had learned to scuba dive nearly 40 years ago, Littrell began training a new generation of divers in hopes of building excitement about his passion of scuba diving and maybe build up a need for his specialized aquatic business.
Over the years, Littrell has trained and certified over 2,000 scuba divers. Littrell’ s typical diving class is two nights a week for two and a half weeks.
“ There are five chapters in the book,” Littrell said.“ You come to chapter one, we get in the classroom, do chapter one academics, get in our pool and do chapter one goals. We do that for five chapters. When we’ re done, we go to the lake to do what they call your open water checkout dives.”
“ We practice in the lake just like
30 Stay & Play Lake Cumberland Region- Summer 2025