I was reading the post about Lake Michigan in another thread. Where are the best places to dive around western Lake Michigan?
I have done several shore dives up in Door County. The part I love about Lake Michigan is the amount of fish life. I feel like I'm in the ocean sometimes. I'd like to do a day trip with the Shoreline dive boat this next Summer. Are there other places to consider? I've heard about some wrecks in the Milwaukee area.
There are a ton of Wrecks on the western shore. As you move south from Green Bay many of them are deeper north of Port Washington. South of Port they start to get shallower again. Anything south of the Illinois border is going to be less than 60'- if that.
Milwaukee has Some great wrecks to dive on. they range in depth from 5' to well past 200'. Some are 20 years old and others are over 150 years old.
Try Len-Der charters for shallow dives and Shipwreck Adventures for the technical dives.
Jon
Jon, can you give more detail about diving the wrecks around Milwaukee or Port Washington area.. I've a lot of relatives in N. Illinois and could maybe combine a trip to lake michigan. How about wrecks for my kinda diving.. fairly close to shore so no boat is necessary (within 1/2 mile or so ?), easy to locate, water depth from 0' to - 60' for some decent freedivng, and of course, all the good vis I'm hearing about. Is there anything that fits that criteria that you know of? I would also need a shallow dive for my wife, she's a bit of a surface dweller yet. And maybe, just maybe... I would consider a scuba dive - but so far that just doesn't seem to be happening.
Fred
If someone could tell me how to post pictures I would gladly do it.
There are mnay shallow wrecks inthe Milwaukee area. Some you can swim to, some we use dive kayaks on and others you need a boat to get to. Anything in less than 60' is going to be somewhat broken up. As soon as you get passed 60' they become intact. Some of them are:
Josaphine- 5-10'
Sebastopol- 8-10'
Volunteer- 10-15'
Appomatax- 18-23' she's also over 300' long!
H.R. Bond- 39'
Sumatra - 30'
As you move further south there are other very nice wrecks that you need a boat to get to. Along the northern edge of Illinois ther is the most famous shipwreck in Wisconsin history, the Lady Elgin. I have scubadove on her with one of the desendents of her victims- it was written up in Sport Diver Magazine. She is actually a very nice freediving spot. Max depth is between 45-55' depending upon which secion your on- she covers over two miles of area.
Also, In northern Illinois, there are other wrecks to dive like:
Zion schooners- 15'
Minesweeper- 10'
Seabird- 30'
Rock barge (Racine) 35'
Some of my favorites to freedive on are the Lumberman, intact schooner in 70', and the Norland, broken up steamer in 65'. We also freedive on the Prinz Willem and the Dredge #6. The start in 25-60' and bottom out around 74-94' of water.
I am planning on going out spearfishing in Lake Monona, Madison, in about an hour. There is one opening in the ice by the powerplant that should make it nice. We need to get in before the cold front hits tonight. ;D
Jon
Thanks for the extra info Jon
Cold front hits tonight? -10 here this morning :'( , I didn't think about the wrecks being busted up in the shallower water but that makes sense. I will keep your post for future reference and if my trip comes together I will visit again.
Pictures: I use a site called that allows me to upload files and pics. It's free with banner ads but I pay the approx. $5 mo. to have the banners gone and this also enables me to use the site for active pics like for auctions on e-bay, but I think on the free side you could still show a link like xxx.jon.50megs.com/photos/pichere.jpg that other people could click on and see the pic. In fact I'm sure of that because it allows free website creation and hosting. I am also aware of some sites that others are using to upload their photo albums to but I don't know the names of these sites.. maybe they will chime in here and give their suggestions.
Fred
You should be able to add picture attachments to your posts. The current max size is 100kb though. When you reply to a thread, look at the bottom of the reply page for the "Attach:" form item. You can click the Browse button to select the image on your local computer. Then, just post the message and the attachment should link to the message.
Another site you can check out is
I have a number of dives stored on there.
You can check out some ice-diving pics at:
Thanks again...
Jean ;D
I really like that last picture Jean. Looks like fun. I'll do the ice dive cert next year.
If you haven't already seen it, the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant program has a nice .
Personally, my favorite Lake Michigan dives off the Milwaukee coast are the Dredge 907, the Prins Willem, and the Lumberman. The Dredge is probably my pick of the lot; it's capsized but held off the bottom by a large support, so that swimming under it is no problem as long as you're careful not to get entangled. The whole underside is a mass of gears, wheels, and cable.
If you're looking for more information on local wreck diving, you might want to check out the coming up this weekend (March 15 & 16) at the Clarion Hotel, near General Mitchell Airport.
Check out NITROXPLUS.COM to see a bunch of photos that I have taken of all the mentioned shipwrecks, or take a look at some of Chris Kohl's books that he has written on the subject- he buys my photos for the books so I have to plug him.
Winter vis on the Willy has been over 80'!!
The dredge is a nice one to get started on and has an interesting history- 9 people died and at least one is still reported to be buried in the bottom still.
Jon