Bottles from the bottom of the lake...

[ronvae]

Bottle diving season is again here in Minnesota--here are my first keepers this spring:

The seam stops at the start of the neck, there are a couple of bubbles, and it says:
A.M. Smith
1982
249 Hen Av.
Minneapolis
Minn.
California
Wine Depot
Established 1872
Full 1 Quart

I'm guessing 1900-ish?

 

[Tony14]

Where do you dive in Minnesotta?
I will most likely be getting my licence soon and am wondering how to dive in inland lakes.

 

[ronvae]

My favorite subject....
There should be dive clubs in your area, or else the dive-shops will have "fun dives" for free to help you meet other divers & stay interested. First, practice your skills in the relatively clear places they will take you. In Wisconsin, the Wazee mining pit in Black River Falls is a great place to practice, but very, very cold. After you get comfortable in clear water, and have buddies you can depend on, then you can get into bottle-diving by finding out where there were hotels and amusement parks in the 1800s, and diving in front of those sites, at about 10-30 feet. They used to haul their garbage out on the ice so it would sink every spring. Also, find out where there are "rock reefs" that fisherman have frequented for a long time--they used to drink & thrown their bottles overboard, and they also lost nice lures and anchors and decoys, etc... The rock reefs will still be in the same places they were a hundred years ago. Don't bother with places that are good to fish because of weeds--weeds move, and are in different places now.

 

[Tony14]

Thanks for the info. One place that I am sure has a lot of resorts and that stuff is at sheboygan harbor in Lake Michigan. That is one spot I really want to try.

 

[ronvae]

Wreck diving on the great lakes is the best diving anywhere (but very, very cold!). Don't take ANYTHING off of a wreck, or the debris field around a wreck, even if you are not in a park. Do not take anything from a park area of a great lake, even if there is no wreck in sight. Basically, the great lakes are so clear, and so historical, that stuff should stay exactly where it is so everybody can enjoy it (there isn't much litter, either). The muddy, mucky, undived, and garbage-filled inland lakes are a different story! That is where the bottles are, and you are just helping the environment by pulling the garbage out.

 

[Tony14]

Believe me, its not so clean at sheboygan harbor[]. Last time I was there there were oil slicks as far as I could see[:'(]. That didn't stop the salmon from hitting though.[]