Diver missing in Mississippi

[jasondbaker]

Diver still missing in river near St. Paul park
Bill Mcauliffe and Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune
November 23, 2004 DROWN1123



The morning was chilly enough for ice to skim the standing water in St. Paul's Hidden Falls Park on Sunday. But as Nic Harter hefted on his scuba gear and waded into the Mississippi River with four other divers, there is a good chance he was thinking about the warm waters of Greece, where he was planning to dive in January.

Today, the 21-year-old St. Olaf College junior is still missing after somehow becoming entangled in a submerged car -- the target of a dive that has even other diving enthusiasts talking about the risks of diving in the river.

"He had a passion for water -- especially being underwater," said his father, Brian Harter, who with his wife, Sandy, was watching Monday as a team of Ramsey County Sheriff's deputies probed the river, searching for their son.

The search, which continued after dark Monday with recovery workers using a sonar device, was expected to resume today. Also today, a daily prayer service at St. Olaf was to be devoted to Nic Harter and the rescue workers.

The Harters said their son, a Hopkins High School graduate and English and Ancient Studies major who had also published his own book of poetry, had begun taking scuba diving as part of a physical education class this fall. When that ended, he pursued a more advanced certification through an independent scuba instruction program in Northfield, Minn. The man believed to be the instructor declined to comment by phone Monday.

Diving adventure

On Sunday, Harter and another student, the instructor and two fire-and-rescue workers from Randolph, Minn., entered the river holding a rope to help them find the submerged car. The plan was to drift downstream in a line perpendicular to the current, hook the car and pull themselves toward it. But when the diver behind Harter moved up the rope, he found Harter already unconscious, according to Eric Cole, a St. Olaf professor and veteran diver who had dived with Harter in a lake near Northfield last week. Cole had also planned to make Sunday's dive, but didn't, because of a sore elbow. He was called to the scene Sunday and talked with the divers and rescue workers.

Dangerous conditions

Ramsey County Lt. Ron Petrusson said the current and the river's murky conditions were too dangerous for the county's own divers to aid in the search Sunday and Monday, although he said a diver with special equipment may get involved today. And staffers at a dozen Twin Cities scuba shops said Monday that they regard the metro Mississippi as off-limits for recreational diving because of the current and low visibility.

Josh Dexter, manager of Smith Diving in Minneapolis, said his company uses the Mississippi River near the Grain Belt Brewery, where it is wider and not as fast-moving, for divers trying to qualify for "master" certification. Such divers usually have made 75 or more dives over three or four years, and the certification dives involve a spotter in a boat, Dexter said.

But Cole, the St. Olaf professor who said he has dived more than 300 times, including once in the Mississippi, said the spot near Hidden Falls didn't appear too risky to him when he arrived Sunday.

"It didn't look to me like anything I wouldn't have jumped into myself," he said, noting a strong current but a sand-gravel bottom and a gentle slope. Cole said he thought the group's dive plan was simple.

"It's hard to see this portrayed as an irresponsible dive," he said. "It was a challenging dive. Maybe more challenging than they'd thought, because it had rained the night before. I saw it out there, and I thought, 'Yeah, you could do this dive.' But you don't know what you're going to encounter. In my view, this was a freak accident."

Love of diving

The Harters said their son Nic dove last month on the Madeira, a shipwreck in Lake Superior near Split Rock Lighthouse. The remains of the Madeira are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Although the wreck attracts more than 1,000 divers a year, Cole said he believes it is a more challenging dive than the area near Hidden Falls.

The Harters shrugged when asked if they knew what their son's long-term goals might have been.

"He was just a sweet soul and a very giving person," Sandy Harter said. "He was a very special kid. I know everybody thinks their kid is special, but it's true."

Bill McAuliffe is at mcaul@startribune.com