I found this article on a we page called The Windy Citizen. http://windycitizen.com/news/elkgrove/2008/08/12/diversdiscoverhistoryinlakemichiganwaters

Alyssa Wells

by Alyssa Wells

Published August 12, 2008 - 12:00 AM

Most people don’t expect to have any scuba diving experience in Lake Michigan, let alone an exciting one. While diving is usually synonymous with warm, turquoise water and dazzling marine life, scuba divers in the Great Lakes region guard a well-preserved secret.

“If you’re diving and you want to see fish you have to go to the tropics,” says Cris Kohl, author of eleven books on the Great Lakes. “But if you want to see the best preserved shipwrecks in the world you have to dive here, because you sure won’t see them in saltwater.”

Our lakes boast shipwrecks galore, from smaller tugboats to schooners resting less than one hundred feet below the surface, a treat for adventurous divers willing to tolerate the cold. Although the water temperature is a deterrent for many potential and seasoned divers, it prevents the deterioration of the sunken boats, products of the Great Lakes’ extensive maritime history.

“There are shipwrecks in the Great Lakes that are almost entirely intact to the point that you can stick your hand into the cargo hold and come up with grain if they were shipping corn or flour,” said Peggy Kurpinski, owner of Adventures in Diving in Holland, Mich.

Despite the many locations to obtain scuba diving certification in the region, most new divers postpone their first dive until they can travel to more tropical climates. However, regional dive shop owners think that the lakes are vastly underrated and new divers often miss out on the opportunity to explore the shipwrecks, remnants of history frozen in time.

“It’s eerie to see something that you’re not supposed to see underwater and strange seeing something so out of context,” said Ralph Naruscewicz, an owner of D.D. Dive Shop in Glenview. “But it’s nice because you swim in some of the ships where you have big openings so you get to see into the compartments. That’s pretty unique.”

Kurpinski said local instructors enjoy taking new divers onto the wrecks because of the sense of wonderment that the divers feel when they realize there is an entire hidden world below the surface of the lake.

“I have newly certified people go out and do a dive and they don’t think they’re going to see anything,” he said. “But they see the wreck, they see the artifact, they get back on the boat, and you can’t stop them from talking for the next half an hour because it is the most thrilling experience. And it’s awesome.”

The lure of scuba diving is the thrill, going to the last place on the planet that hasn’t been thoroughly explored.

“Shipwreck divers like the drama, the history, the exploration of a different world,” says Kohl, whose books include Shipwreck Tales of the Great Lakes and The Great Lakes Diving Guide. “They look at the ship’s wheel and they imagine the helmsman struggling hard to save the ship in a storm before it sank. They ask themselves, ‘Who last walked on these decks? Did they survive? What happened to them?’”

Divers interested in the history of the vessels have been known to take souvenirs with them. While each state bordering the lakes made it illegal to remove things from the wrecks, it’s hard for many to pass up the opportunity. Kurpinski has a collection of bottles that would make antique stores jealous, including a Coca-Cola bottle that is over one hundred years old.

“I have two halves of a plate that was being shipped to Marshall Fields,” says Lee Skinner, an avid diver from Elk Grove Village with over 1,000 dives under his wetsuit.

Skinner and his wife Nancy have been diving for 26 years, traveling to dive sights across the globe like Phuket, Thailand and Cozumel, Mexico. While her husband enjoys the more adventurous aspects of diving, Nancy likes the serenity that she finds in the water.

“It’s so peaceful,” she said. “I find diving extremely relaxing and restful. When you go diving and you jump in the water for the first time it’s like going home. It’s so beautiful there.”