y. After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Chicago was faced with an opportunity and a challenge. Chicagoans had the chance to change the face of their city, but even as they realized this they were left with a problem: what were they going to do with all the debris? The fire had consumed much of the primarily wooden city; there was wreckage everywhere.
Some of it was shoveled to the edge of the lake to serve as landfill as part of a project to extend the shoreline and create Grant Park and other public lake front spaces, but not all of it. They actually loaded much of the debris onto enormous barges, sailed due east of the Chicago River, and dumped it between 6 and 10 miles out into Lake Michigan.
How do I know this? Because now, it’s a dive site.
Tho
ugh much of the debris is now buried, the site is diveable, marked by two caissons that were dumped as well as some ships and barges that were sunk loaded with garbage (including one that was burned to the waterline, then sunk). If you dive this site intending to do some treasure hunting, bring a hand trowel and be ready to get dirty; you can take whatever you find (since it’s considered garbage, it is not a protected area). There have been many objects pulled up over the years: bricks, china, weapons (including, if the rumors are true, Civil War-era daggers and swords), glass bottles, silverware, more bricks, gas streetlamps, porcelain, and bricks, to name a few (there are lots of bricks).
The bad news? The site stretches across four miles of lake; you could find something amazing, or you could find nothing, and you always have to dig in low visibility to find it. The odds may not be in your favor, but the history that Lake Michigan can yield should be enough to intrigue any adventurous spirit.
Special thanks to Captain Jim Gentile, owner of Windy City Diving, who answered my questions and passed along a couple of anecdotes. Check out his dive charters on Lake Michigan at his website: windycitydiving.net.
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