Love Rock Lake Michigan

[underwateraddict]

Does anyone have any info on this.  They blew it up many years ago.  I heard before that you could go 100 feet bellow the lake floor.  Any numbers or info would be appreciated.

[matt t.]

Don't have any numbers for you. If I remember right it was north of the harbor (maybe off of the "gun club") and within a mile or so of shore. Back in the late 80's I bought a motorcycle from a man whose son drowned trying to swim out to the love rock. Sad story, but I got a nice low mileage bike cheap.....

[jasondbaker]

Found this via google: Latitude 043° 03.50' N 087° 51.92' W

[Omicron]

What is/was Love Rock?

[voodooconstant]

sounds interesting, love + rock + blowing it up.  Please elaborate. 

[underwateraddict]

Love Rock was an old water intake that broached the surface.  I remember some Jerry stories about diving down into the intake.  Also there was an old green sheet article about its construction.  They blew it up decades ago and I remember seeing a seismograph printout of the explosion back when I was at UWM.  Also on one of my trips out I saw a boat with dive flag up in the vacinity and I was wondering if anyone knew anything about it.  I have also dove the abandoned intakes off of north avenue this summer and I think love rock pre-dates those.

What search criteria was used to locate this on google??

[jasondbaker]

I searched on "love rock lake michigan"

[FreediveWI]

Jerry has the numbers, as we used to use that spot to do our openwater training dives in the late summer.

There is still some underwater structure to it, and even a few old artifacts as I remember. The whole thing comes up off the bottom about 8'-10' and is actually a neat shallow dive.

If I remember right it lies in 22' of water. It's north of government pier and south of the north water intake- which is also a very cool dive.

Jon

[underwateraddict]

I did the google search and found it.  They list it as a hazard.  I will check it out when I am coming in from some other dive and I have some leftover air.  Also I'll post a followup.
What I have experienced this summer is that there are many more dive sites than I realized like this that are off the beaten track.  While they are not intact steel wrecks with penetration oportunities but they are interesting.  I have also dove twice now on an interesting reef one mile east of the twin wate intakes.  I found this looking for an Airplane Jerry had listed in his guide.  The bottom erosion leaves a series of 5 to 6 foot canyons that remind me of Sedona AZ. 
One other site I have never been able to locate is the old Ulao peir that was supposed to extend 1000' out into the lake and was a cord wood refueling pier.
One of my buddies wants to dive the Kate Kelly anybody ever dive that?
Thanks for the info guys...

[FreediveWI]

Kate Kelly is an ok dive to do- once.

Another spot ot try is the Sumatra, on BOTH sides of the wall.

If you can get out during the week, no boat traffic, then diving the south gap is really cool. There are lots of wild bottom features that are caused by the bigger boats coming through there and blasting craters in the bottom.

If you swim around the wall to the outside there are four cars sunk for the fire department to train on that you can also dive.

There also used to be a bunch of old batteries, from the automatic light house, lying on the bottom around there with "U.S. Government" stamped on them. :

The reef off the green can bouy, just off of Bayview, is also a neat place to dive. We've done lots of openwater training dives around there and it drops off really nice to give you some decent relief. There are usually fish to see and it should get fairly warm this time of year. Just be careful for the DNR nets that are sometimes out there.

Jon