PUGET SOUND MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEETS TONIGHT!
Oct 06, 2010
| A TRIP TO THE BOTTOM OF LAKE UNION In 1854 Thomas Mercer was thinking someday canals would join Lake Washington with Puget Sound and the small lake along the way would be a “union of waters,” thus the name should be Lake Union. | |
| Almost from that day folks started to wonder what was on the bottom of the “little lake.” With an average depth of 33 feet and a maximum of 49 feet, there certainly could be many curious items under the Lake Union waters. Now, more than a century and a half later, PSMHS members will learn the real truth. Join us for the October dinner meeting and hear and see the results of a team of underwater explorers who have been probing the bottom over the last year. Many are the myths…from old cars, early airplanes and old boats. The old boats are one of the groups main focuses, along with the currents, waterlife, and the chemistry of the lake. In the early years, Lake Union was considered a great place to dump whatever needed disposing. Through the years efforts to clean up the lake have helped but much of the bottom is made up of the decomposed wood chips and saw dust from Arthur Denny’s sawmill. That material is now in “custard” form. PSMHS members John Goodfellow and Dick Wagner will conduct our tour. They’ve been involved in the project with a stellar volunteer group ranging from Washington State Department of Natural Resources to the Submerged Cultural Resources Exploration Team. Divers using side-scan radar and video cameras will allow us to join them on the bottom. Our October dinner meeting with be at a new (for us) location. We’ll be at Ivar’s Salmon House at North Lake Union. Directions are in this Newsletter. There is now plenty of parking and ground level access. Join us for what promises to be a interesting and fun program. Then you can tell your neighbors what is on Lake Union’s bottom! For registration information, please see their website. | |
