Lake Michigan is So Clear Right Now its Shipwrecks Are Visible From the Air

Smithsonian Magazine ^ | 5-3-15 | Marissa Fessenden

[afraidfortherepublic]

Though the past winter was the hottest on record, it was chilly enough on the East Coast to send seasonal sheets of ice creeping across the Great Lakes. Now that that ice has cleared with spring, Lake Michigan is clear enough that shipwrecks lying on the lake bottom can be seen from the air.

The U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Traverse City noted the crystal clear water conditions and the lost ships during a routine patrol. Last week, they posted a handful of pictures to their Facebook page. The images come from the area near Sleeping Bear Point known as the Manitou Passage Underwater Preserve, which is "one of the richest areas in Michigan for shipwreck diving," according to the preserve’s website. The lumber industry put the area on a shipping route. The North and South Manitou Islands, just north of the point, provided a somewhat sheltered area for ships hiding from storms.

Susan Cosier, writing for On Earth, reports:

Not much is known about most of the wrecks, but they do include one doomed vessel, the James McBride, which was thought to be the first to carry cargo from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Michigan in 1848. Facebook commenters helped fill in some of the blanks, but most the historic details are still, well, watery.

The Coast Guard Air Station added what information people could dredge up from the depths of the Internet to their descriptions of each of the photos, but of the five ships they posted, three remain unidentified.

[justa-hairyape]

CO2 is not pollution. We exhale it. Plants incorporate it as a nutrient.

[colorado tanker]

The Clean Air and Water Acts were great successes.

Unfortunately, these days environmentalists mainly use environmental laws to stop or roll back development, to implement a socialist agenda.

[truth_seeker]

“The Clean Air and Water Acts were great successes.
Unfortunately, these days environmentalists mainly use environmental laws to stop or roll back development, to implement a socialist agenda.”

I have worked in the oil business, the engineering & construction business, and the real estate business.

In every case great efforts were made towards a clean environment.

In my coastal town with 10 miles of shoreline, I witnessed environmental extremists lie and mislead, when plans to restore a wetland were being developed. The conservationist rational interests had facts, science and common sense on their side. The extremist interests had emotionalism and lies on their side.

Now several years after the project was completed, the lies that the extremists told, have been proved false.

[stinkerpot65]

Polymer Chemists excluded! Apologies ....