Hi! I'm in Vermont for a few days. Was hoping to do some wreck diving but the local dive group had difficulty getting a group together so late in the season.
VERMONT?? Don't laugh. Lake Champlain is more than 120 miles long and 400+ feet deep. The Lake boasts over 200 confirmed wrecks (less than a dozen seem dive-worthy) with much underwater archeological exploration still needed.
I visited the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum yesterday. 'Saw displays and videos of current and past underwater archeological work. Current work includes exploration of several square miles off Valcour Island, scene of a naval engagement in 1776 (back in the days when Benedict Arnold was on the right side). 'Last gunboat in Arnold's fleet was not discovered until 1997 in over 180 feet of water, upright, with the mast standing in place and almost fully intact! (In the Revolutionary War and later in the War of 1812, Lake Champlain was a strategic waterway linking the Hudson Valley and Quebec).
There are also wrecks from the War of 1812 and many civilian working boats (barges, paddlewheelers etc) from throughout the 19th centure. Very few have overhead diving challenges. So we mere mortals (Open Water certified divers) can still have some fun!
Artifacts from those wrecks that have been discovered in recent years now appear in the Maritime Museum. Wreck divers are encouraged to visit the Museum before/after they dive, for obvious reasons. The Museum has a preservation lab/workshop that is open to the public.
For more information on diving in Lake Champlain, check out these websites:
Local dive group:
http://www.champlaindivers.com/
The local dive shop:
http://www.waterfrontdiving.com/lc_dive.html
CyberDiver news article about scuba in the Lake...
http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i040831/i040831.html
This from Archaelogy magazine...
http://www.archaeology.org/0103/abstracts/scene.html
Decent photos...
http://www.lcmm.org/site/index/framesets/mri_framesets/frameset_mri_underwater.html
Articles about the major wrecks at ShipwreckWorld.com...
http://www.shipwreckworld.com/lakechamplain/default.aspx
And by the way, Lake Champlain also has some interesting animal life that divers may be lucky enough to observe. Not that anyone will believe you...
http://www.trueauthority.com/cryptozoology/champ.htm
WAY COOL!!