Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago
Meeting Minutes 26 January 2011
General
- Approximately 40 members and guests met at 6:30 on the 8th floor of the Helix Building, 310 S. Racine at Jackson.
- Guests: Sue Cummings and Linda Lamberty from the Ridge Historical Society and Francisco Angulo
- New Members: Jack Bolous
- Tonights meeting was run by Don Doherty, with refreshments provided by Bob and Claire Gadbois and Hank Fiene.
Board and Committee Reports
- President - Don Doherty
- A steering committee is being formed to help guide the society
- So far the committee consists of 17 members,including the elected officers and Past Presidents, plus Bill Messner, John Gerty, Chet Childs, and John & Ruth Loftus, and some others.
- A steering committee is being formed to help guide the society
- Secretary - John Bell provided copies of the minutes from the last meeting, which were approved.
- UASC now has new business cards - Everyone should carry a few and hand them out as appropriate.
- New membership forms are available, and will be available at all future meetings.
- Membership – Rosters were provided by Scott Reimer.
- Members from 2010 who have not yet renewed their memberships are still included, but marked accordingly.
- Treasury – Bob Gadbois reported on the state of UASC finances.
- Around $1000 in dues have arrived for 2011. ( Much more than we had received by the same time last year. )
- Expenses have been paid for OWU and Ghost Ships booths.
- Contact Bob for further details
- – Claire Gadbois reported on the Illinois Council of Skin and Scuba Divers:
- February 10 - Club Appreciation Night - Theme Lionfish roundup, some free pizza and soda. Mr. Beef & Pizza in Mt. Prospect. Club Officers invited.
- February 18 to 21 - ICSSD will have a booth 1026 at OWU with petitions to keep the Coast Guard rescue helicopter at Waukegan.
- March 13 - UW Competition Elk Grove. Sigin 11:30, competition starts at 12:00. UASC are the defending champions!
- July 31 - Jim Haigh Memorial Dive
- September TBA - Cleanup Dive
- October 2 - Pumpkin Carvind Dive
- October 16 - President's night next year probably at Sawa's
- Newsletter – Cris Kohl is out of town
- Cris thanks all who contribute to the newsletter, past and future.
- Survey Coordinator - John Gerty
- Slate for the Buccaneer should be ready in time for OWU.
- Brian Abbott will be sector scanning Car Ferry #2, Material Service, Wells Burt.
- Feb Nat'l Geographic has a sector scan of wrecks to reefs.
- Working on refreshed imaging of booth displays - Material Service & Car Ferry #2.
- Several UASC people working on NAS II certification projects.
- Dive Coordinators - Nothing tonight
- Web Site - Jack Bolous our new webmaster presented some slides on our new site.
- Development being done using Joomla templates to separate content from the look-and-feel.
- This will allow a number of members to add content without requring web development skills.
- DiveHeart Liason - Gene Hasiak
- Helping Larry & Nancy with Travel Adventure show this weekend.
- Chicago Maritime Festival - Underwater Detectives for young participants. Gene will also be presenting for DiveHeart and also the history of UASC.
- Check the for info on upcoming events.
- Other
Old Business
There was no old business at this meeting
New Business
- The Presidential Sweatshirt was passed on from Joan Forsberg to Don Doherty.
- The 2010 UASC Award was awarded to Hank Fiene for many years of service to UASC, mostly in the background.
- Feb 18-20
- Joan and Cris will be presenting "Booze, Bullets, and the Buccaneer" at the Friday Night Film Festival.
- Also at the Friday Night Film Festival, Bob Gadbois will be awarded the Middle Coast Award.
- UASC will have booth number 1006
- John Bell with setup and take down the booth.
- John Gerty is working on new display items to freshen up the booth for this year.
- A signup sheet was passed around for volunteers to man the booth.
- Larry Boucha and Bob Gadbois from UASC will be managing the A/V for the show.
- Feb 26
- The Wreck Detective Children's Presentation will be done again by the Loftuses, Gene Hasiak, and others.
- Tony Kiefer will speak on the Tool Crib Disaster
- Gene Hasiak will speak on DiveHeart and UASC
- Tom Kastle brought lots of literature to distribute
- will be in Milwaukee March 25th and 26th
- Booth volunteers needed - Signup sheets going around.
- OTHER: Miscellaneous new business items should be brought up – briefly – now.
- John Bell: UASC now has a Facebook page, which can be found at , or by searching for "uaschicago" within Facebook. Please "like" the page to keep up with the latest UASC events.
- Margo Miller:
- Mike Wilbert is the ICSSD Underwater Park committee head.He has been working on a Chicago underwater park for the last 15 years. He is an instructor with the National Association of Underwater Instructors.
- He met with Jeanne Gang who is a principal at Studio/Gang/Architects.
- She did all the designs for Northerly Island
- The second person he met with was Mark O'Leary. He is a principal and Senior Ecologist at JJR,LLC.
- They indicated that they have all the land and aerial photos they can use but they have nothing of what they want to see underwater. They want to see if there are any fish habitats at this time before they do anything. This would also help them determine where they should put any new habitats at Northerly Island. The UASC would be a good club to work on this issue. Mike would like to set up a time in spring to get some underwater shots.
- Bob Foster of the Chicago Park District is very interested in pursuing underwater landscapes for both the fish and the people. Are there any members that would be interested in working With the Illinois Council on this project? Please send an email to me if interested
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- Chuck Miller - Who is the Buccaneer spokesperson? Speakers are needed to talk to other club meetings. We can do something after OWU.
- Speakers are always needed.
- THANKS to Bob and Claire Gadbois for providing tonight's refreshments, and to Hank Fiene for providing wine.
- Sign up for meeting refreshments - Dan Kasberger Refreshments coordinator.
- February - Delphine Pontvieux
NEXT MEETING: Wednesday February 23, 2010
Refreshments to be provided by Delphine Pontvieux
Shipwreck Survey Projects
- Material Service - Sank on July 29, 1936 in 38’ - Project Leader: Jim J./John L./Tony K./Cris K.
- Contact Cris or Joan if you have any relevant materials - Report to be generated soon.
- Barge No. 2 - Sank on Sept. 29, 1906 in 40’ - Project Leader: John Loftus
- John Loftus, Jim Jarecki, and John Bell are working on this wreck for their NAS II project.
- The Rotarian - Scuttled on September 28, 1931 in 80' - Project Leader: Tony Kiefer
- The Straits of Mackinac - Scuttled on April 10, 2003 in 78’ - Project Leader:Needed
Guest Speaker -- Rich Gross– “In Search of the Long Lost (and Found?) Le Griffon”
An interesting presentation about the lost Le Griffon, a vessel built by the French explorer La Salle. Lost in 1679, it is believed to be the oldest shipwreck in the Great Lakes.
Our presenter, Rich Gross, is the Historian with the Great Lakes Exploration Group (GLEG). In addition to the archaeological story behind the shipwreck discovered in 2001 by Steve Libert (president of GLEG) near the farthest northern reaches of Lake Michigan, Rich will provide a detailed overview of the history of the ship and the French explorer who directed its construction. He'll tell how years of litigation between GLEG and the State of Michigan led to a 3-way partnership after the French government intervened in the case, claiming the ship in Federal court. The chief underwater archaeologist of France has thrown his support behind the project, helping researchers locate cannon numbers and other useful details about the Le Griffon. Is it the Le Griffon? The use of side scan sonar, magnetometer and a sub-bottom survey seemed to indicate the presence of a submerged debris field and a large object somewhere below the debris. More survey work is needed, and is planned in 2011 when the group returns to the site to try to identify the remains.
Rich Gross began studying the history of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle in 1975 at the age of 17, in preparation for an authentic reenactment of La Salle's journey of discovery from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico. He was one of 23 men who retraced La Salle's journey to claim the Mississippi River watershed for King Louis XIV. For the next 25 or more years, he continued researching La Salle's activities. Rich, who lives in Schaumburg and teaches high school biology, will augment his historical knowledge of the ship and its famed explorer with PowerPoint graphics and underwater video.
Other Business
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:00, after which a number of members retired to for further discussions and socializing.