Digging into history: Auroran leads search of Chicago River's murky waters
CHICAGO -- Divers came up with bottles, a shoe and crates of other items Sunday afternoon -- but no definite link to the Eastland steamer, which capsized and sank in the Chicago River in 1915.
David Rautio, owner of Below H20 dive shop in Aurora who led the 15 volunteers, said they came up with about 10 crates full of relics which will have to be evaluated as to their age, before they can be linked to the ship.
"We found one bottle that appears to be from that era," Rautio said. "It looks homemade and probably was sealed with a cork, according to an expert that was with us. But we don't know what it contained. The shoe we found also may have been from the time period."
Rautio and his diving partner and wife Karen said they were not disappointed with their finds, but they're not sure they got much that can be tied to the ship. Also on the dive was Mike Galey, instructor for their company.
The Eastland, packed with sightseers preparing to depart on an excursion, capsized in the early morning of July 24, 1915, drowning 844 men, women and children just a stone's throw from shore. The accident occurred near the Clark Street bridge.
Rautio used a searchlight to comb through the murky waters of the Chicago River, but by the time they went down for their third and last 30- to 45-minute dive, the light gave out.
"Visibility was about 2 inches, and we had to dig into the mud to find things. You went by feel. If something felt hard, you tried to bring it up. We were up to our elbows in mud and silt," he said.
The divers were working in water 20-plus feet deep. The water temperature was about 46 degrees, which was good for this time of year, Rautio said.
They located a pillar from the original bridge that was there in 1915. But they found that a dock built sometime after the accident was extended 8 feet out into the water, making that area inaccessible to divers, he said.
Rautio said one of the spectators Sunday was the grandson of one of the original divers sent down to rescue people immediately after the accident. Another spectator was a member of the Eastland Society, and the granddaughter of a woman who survived the accident.
Rautio said the Eastland was pulled upright shortly after the accident, pumped dry and later used by the Navy for training during World War II.
Rautio said they won't make another dive for quite a while. He said some of the items they found might be included in a display on the Eastland that will accompany a display on the Titanic that will be brought to Chicago in February.
