SHIPWRECKS: GRIFFON STILL MISSING; RARE DAGGER-BOARD SCHOONER FOUND

THE GRIFFON: JUST A STICK IN THE MUD
After five years of hoopla, the location of LaSalle's long lost ship, the Griffon, still remains elusive.
Wreck hunter Steve Libert figured he made the big hit back in 2003 off some islands in northern Lake Michigan. He found a piece of wood stuck in the mud, maybe a spar. He carved off a small piece and had it analyzed.
Maybe, just maybe it was the right age for the Griffon -- the first sailing ship in the upper lakes -- that was lost in 1697, the analysts said.
A big battle ensued between Libert and the state of Michigan that ended up in the courts about to whom the ship (if it was there) belonged and who would get to investigate the remains of whatever was found.
Now comes a report the Associated Press that divers (whose sponsorship was not explained) explored the site in October. What did they find aside from the now famous underwater stick?
Please hold the drum roll. The found absolutely nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Big deal said a spokesman for Libert, the ancient remains were probably scattered all over the place.
If that's so, what exactly is the argument about?

DAGGER-BOARD SCHOONER SPOTTED DEEP DOWN IN LAKE ONTARIO
A couple of shipwreck hunters on Lake Ontario have been doing themselves proud this past year.
In May, Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville discovered the oldest shipwreck ever found in the Great Lakes. It was the HMS Ontario, a British warship that went down in 1780. Further it was the only British warship of this period in existence today.
Now Kennard and Scoville report they have spotted a rare, 55-foot dagger-board schooner sitting upright some 500 feet down below the lake surface west of Rochester, New York.
This type of schooner is the only one ever to have been found in the Great Lakes. The ship type was used only briefly in the early 1800s.
The dagger board is an innovation well known to many of today's small boat sailors.
It is a wood panel that is dropped down from the keel to stabilize a boat, especially when high high winds hitting the sails cause a knock down.
The commercial advantage for such a schooner is that the dagger board can be lifted when the ship sails into shallow harbors to load or unload goods. It allowed them to go into places where bigger ships with permanent deep keels would run aground.
No name, no record
At this point, no one knows the name of this vessel and the two shipwreck hunters have been unable to find any records of a sunken dagger-board ship.
Kennard and Scoville suspect that this vessel well might have been used as a barge.
Using a remotely operated underwater vehicle, they were able to closely examine the wreck and soon saw that any usable items had been stripped. No anchors, iron fittings, nothing in the cabin and no tiller.
What happened to this ship? Like so much else, it's unclear.
Kennard and Scoville suspect that it might have broken free from its moorings -- either in a storm or because of ice -- drifted out into the lake. And sank.
Or perhaps more romantically, just sailed to the bottom.

SWEET CUPS

Just the thing for coffee in the morning.
Check Pen & Compass for a new, at least in my website, way of getting photos. And it's pretty darned inexpensive.
Now you can get limited editions of these photos on coffee cups. No more than 25 of any photo will be printed through this website.
Just the thing for an I'm-thinking-of-you gift.

Photos: NEW SHOWING IN ANN ARBOR AND AFRICA SHOTS ON THE WEB SITE

Two bits of news on the photo front (or would that be photo phront?)

WEB SITE
New photos from Africa and also some additional shots from Nepal are now on theweb site.

SHOWS
You now now can see my photos, both from the Great Lakes and the world, at the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce offices at 115 W. Huron (just west of Main Street).
My photos along with the works of 16 other regional artists go up on Friday, October 31 and will stay for about three months.
Yes, it's an office. But no, you don't have to worry about just dropping by. They are expecting visitors. They even like them.

In addition, my photos, both framed and unframed, and my two books are still for sale at the Side Door Gallery in Dexter, right on the main drag and just to the right of a major Dexter landmark -- the Dairy Queen.

GOVERNMENT: SCREW THE GREAT LAKES!

At one time, at least in my memory, the Environmental Protection Agency was actually on the side of protecting the environment.
No longer.
Since the Bush administration galloped into power, the agency that once stood for clean and healthy has become the agency to befoul.
A recent example: The Associated Press reported that on June 9, the EPA ruled that permits were no longer required for the discharge of pollutants into transfer waters.
What this means to the Great Lakes is that no permits will be needed if an ocean-going ship dumps ballast sea water or waters from eastern Europe into the big lakes.
Never mind if this dumpage is loaded with alien species of that can clog our drains, scour our water of micro-organisms and kill our fish.
Based on a University of Notre Dame study released in July, invasive species could cost the region an estimated $200 million a year.
Fortunately this past week Michigan and eight other states filed a lawsuit against the EPA over what they call the agency's illegal ruling on the transfer of water that could harm fisheries and contaminate drinking water.
Such water transfers regularly occur all over the country for irrigation projects, city drinking water, dams and ecological restoration.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is leading the coalition of states in this law suit, cited previous court rulings that say that water transfers must be regulated under the Clean Water Act.
The eight-state suit has been filed in U.S. District Court in New York.
In addition to Michigan and New York, states involved in the suit are Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Washington and the Canadian province of Manitoba.
This law suit follows a suit filed by the Florida Wildlife Federation to have the EPA'S new rule invalidated.

FINALLY ...

In case you missed it last Friday during all the excitement of President Bush signing off on the $700 billion economic rescue package, he also signed another bill.
This one is a big deal for the Great Lakes states.
He signed into law the compact agreement of eight Great Lakes states to prevent the transfer of water out of the lakes' basin.
Two Canadian provinces, Quebec and Ontario, also have signed a similar agreement approved under Canadian law.
It took 10 years, but finally it is done.
Arizona and Nevada will have to look some place else if they want to fill their swimming pools and water their lawns.
The compact is not perfec. It allows some exceptions to the rule including the shipping of Great Lakes bottled water out of the region But basically, the lakes seem appear to be safe from, say, giant pipes snaking their way to the American desert or tanker ships from elsewhere slurping up the water.

CONGRESS SAYS, YES

The U.S. House of Representatives, voting 290 to 25 on Tuesday, approved an eight-state compact that will prevent large-scale diversions of Great Lakes water to areas outside the lakes' basin.
President George Bush has said he will sign the agreement into law.
It took 10 years to get it done and Michigan was the last of the states to sign off on it.
Two Canadian provinces, Ontario and Quebec, have signed a virtually identical pact.
Whew!

WHO LOVES YA, BABY?

Of the two presidential candidates, only one has come forward with a proposed program to restore the Great Lakes -- Sen. Barack Obama.
This week the Democratic candidate recently announced a five-point Great Lakes plan saying it would be a top priority for his administration.
The Obama plan, to be funded with a $5 billion trust fund, would include:
* Creating a Great Lakes czar within the Environmental Protection Agency;
* Cleaning up polluted hot spots around the lakes;
* Restoring wetlands;
* Having a zero tolerance policy for invasive species by targeting ballast water in ships coming in from outside the Great Lakes basin;
* Funding expensive repairs to end sewer overflows, which send harmful bacteria into the lake waters.
Obama's campaign team said the $5 billion over 10 years would come from rolling back tax cuts and other incentives to big oil and gas companies.
The $5 billion is not expected to manage the entire job, but to jump start restoration of the lakes, a campaign spokesperson said.
To be sure, it will be no easy job getting such a measure through Congress.
The campaign team for Republican candidate Sen. John McCain so far has neither responded to the Obama proposal nor offered one of its own.
At least at this point, it seems that the big lakes are not priority enough for McCain to put forward a specific plan or a dollar amount.
However, both Senators Obama and McCain have both signed a pledge that they will include "significant funding" to annual budgets for priorities of the Great Lakes.
On the plus side for the lakes, the U.S. Senate has approved an eight-state Great Lakes compact that would prevent any diversion of the big lakes' waters to drier states.
The U.S. Congress could approve it within the next couple of weeks.

SHIPWRECK HUNTERS FIND LONG MISSING GRAVE SITE OF VICTIMS OF 1950 AIRLINER CRASH IN LAKE MICHIGAN -- SITE TO BE HONORED

Michigan shipwreck hunters have discovered the long-missing remains of victims of Northwest flight 2501 that went down in the big lake off South Haven in 1950.
You can read the full story behind the mystery of this plane crash in my book "Shipwreck Hunter."
The wreck itself has yet to be found, but Valerie Van Heest, of Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, has reported discovering an unmarked burial site for some of the victims' remains at the Riverview Cemetery in St. Joseph.
A recently created monument has been constructed of black granite and will be placed on the site on Saturday, September 20. It will list the names of all 58 people who died in the crash.
On the stormy evening of June 23, 1950 that the DC-4 went down in Lake Michigan, it was the world's worst aviation disaster.
People who saw the plane go overhead noted the engines sounded odd and that they spotted a bright flash near one of the wings. That was the last anyone saw of the Northwest Flight 2501. The plane was on its way from New York's La Guardia Airport to Seattle with a stop at Minneapolis.
For more than a week following the crash, the Michigan shoreline was littered shredded body parts -- most no bigger than a man's hand. Bits of debris also floated ashore seat cushions, clothing, blankets, luggage.
The ghoulish remnants were so thick that the South Haven had to close its most popular beach for nine days.
It was only recently that Van Heest learned from a former Coast Guardsman who was involved in the recovery of the body parts that they were taken to the Coast Guard station at St. Joseph.
County coroner Louis Kerlikowski, who was a funeral home director, took charge of the remains.
"It must have been a terrific explosion to disintegrate the bodies so badly," Kerlikowski said at the time.
Checking the records at the St. Joseph's Riverview Cemetery, Van Heest said she found at "a one-line penciled-in notation" in the sexton's record that showed the location of the mass grave.
It read "Body parts from airplane crash" and was dated June, 1950.
The unidentified remains were cremated.
The families of the crash victims were never notified nor was the grave site ever marked, Van Heest said.
In anticipation of the Saturday memorial ceremony, Van Heest said she has been able to find and contact families of 47 of the 58 victims. Members of at least 10 of these families plan to attend the ceremony. Some will come from as far away as New York and California.
Van Heest and her group has been searching the waters of Lake Michigan with side scan sonar for the past six years hoping to find the wreckage of the lost airliner.
Interestingly, Clive Cussler, the best selling author and renown shipwreck hunter, has lent financial and technical support to help in the search by the Van Heest group.
But unfortunately, even with this prominent backing, Van Heest's Michigan Shipwreck Associates have yet to find the downed airplane.
Given the apparently devastating nature of the crash, Van Heest guesses that if they do find anything, it might only be the engines.
The ceremony for the laying of the monument will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Riverview Cemetery on Niles Road in St. Joseph.

A NEW TOP GUY TO OPPOSE ENVIRONMENTAL REGS?

Six months may not seem like a long time.
But apparently it is enough for the Bush administration to fashion its legacy in terms of the environment, that is to do as much damage as time and political manuveurings will allow.
Of late comes an effort by the Department of the Interior to defang the Endangered Species Act. (See below)
Now the Bush administration apparently has turned its attention to the Energy Department with an eye on squashing any efforts to control climate change.
The Associated Press reports that the leading contender to be the agency's top official is Chase Hutto, a top aide to Vice President Cheney.
You probably never heard of Hutto, but he is an ardent opponent of any regulations to protect the environment when they come at the expense of industry.
For several years, Hutto has played an active, behind-the-scenes role in shaping the administration's environmental policies.
His fingerprints can be found on rules that now affect air quality and the waters now being crossed by oil tankers, the wire service reports.
And in every instance, he has challenged proposals that would put more regulations on industry. On this point, both his allies and opponents agree.
At the White House, Hutto has been one of the oil and gas industry's key points of contact for energy and environmental matters, the AP reported.
Embarrassingly enough, Hutto, age 39, was born in Michigan, got a bachelor's degree in business and then a law degrees at the University of Michigan.
A career Republican operative, he got his start working for Spencer Abraham's 1994 Senate win, as an opposition researcher and went on to do similar work for other Republican Senate candidates. In 2000, he shifted to working for the Bush-Cheney campaign.
"He always struck as being naturally and philosophically opposed to (environmental) regulation," said Jason Burnett, an administration critic who served as the Environmental Protection Agency's deputy associate administrator until last June.
"I can't think of a case where Chase advocated more environmental or health protection," Burnett said.