Let's Take a Dive!

Our speaker on August 11th was introduced by Tom Anderson. Gary White is a scuba diver who started diving at the age of 15 and discovered the riches of Lake Minnetonka soon after starting. He has explored in all parts of the lake, but the most interesting areas are near the old hotels. There he finds old bottles and other items discarded in the late 1800s. He brought a sampling of the bottles he has recovered from the lake to the meeting. Although he spoke of his recreational diving, he also does diving for profit. Insurance companies will hire him to recover items that are in the lake. He participates in the annual clean-up day and commented on some of the new junk that is dropped into the lake by ice fishermen and thoughtless boaters. There are interesting items in the lake for divers to look at. There are the remains of the streetcar boats off Big Island, and a well-preserved Ford Model T truck just off Boy Scout Island. Because of clarity issues, Gary prefers to dive in the Upper Lake, and the water is the clearest in the spring. Diving in Minnetonka is somewhat of a challenge because of the heavy boat traffic. He told the story of a boater who tugged on his diver's flag, and had no idea what the flag stood for. He has recovered all types of boating equipment including outboard motors, anchors, and does a lot of that type of work for insurance companies. During questions, Gary told us that the water temperature is stable in the lake until 13 feet of depth, then there is a significant drop in degrees at that point. You don't notice the temperature drop in lakes like Superior, where the surface water temperature is about 40 degrees. (Story by Tad Shaw)