Diving Lakeville Lake

Years ago, when I was still married to the Crazy Horse Woman, I was trying to find a new unhunted area.

We used to do a lot of dancing. Line dancing, country dancing and clogging. We would meet for lessons and dancing at a bar north of Oxford Michigan, where we were living.

The bar was owned by an old couple, Doc and his hag wife, She was ok I guess, at least to me but she was meaner than a dang rat snake to most,

Doc was maybe 80 years old, maybe a little older. He had lived in the area all his life so I decided to ask him where he swam as a kid. He told me of a few places that were still in use and also mentioned a place on Lakeville lake where there used to be a beach, He said that on the forth of July there would be thousands of people out there. I asked what was there now and he said he thought there was a house. I got directions to the place and the next chance I got I took a drive out to look it over,

It was only about five miles from my house so I drove out. I was not sure exactly where it was but the directions were pretty close. It was on a curve and I drove slowly past and I was not sure which house it was. One house was down a very long drive, maybe 500 ft from the road. It was a big house and fairly new. There was a guy working in his yard down there and I thought, what the heck, and drove down the drive. The house was a huge two story house and must have been 3500 sq ft. With a walkout basememt.

I am lucky because I sorta have a gift for gab and if I can get the guy talking for a few minutes I can usually get permission. This guy was a gem! He was a short fat little guy and a ball to talk to. He was one of the first scuba divers in the area but had not dove in many years. He said he and his buddy used to dive before wet suits were common and he quit diving when his buddy drownd. He said he was on the 53 Olympic swimming team too. He now was a realitor.

I stopped and got out. I walked up and stuck out my hand and introduced myself. He smiled and I knew things might go pretty well. I told him that I was a diver and my hobby was under water metal detecting. I told him that an old guy had told me that there used to be an old beach on his lake front and I would like his permission to hunt it.

He said I could hunt it any time I wanted and invited me up to the house for coffee,. We went up to the house and I met his wife and we talked a while. They were very friendly.

I had not brought my diving equiptment along and asked him with it would be convient for me to come dive. He told me that both he and his wife worked in his office but I could come over any time I wished, It was November and pretty cool. He told me that he would leave his house unlocked and I could change in there and go up to the kitchen and make coffee after diving, they would have coffee, donuts and cookies for me up on the cupboard. I just looked at him. I told him, “You don’t even know me! Are you nuts?” He laughed and told me that he was a good judge of people and he was not worried. I told him that there was no way I was gonna wander through his house when he was not there. He told me that if I wanted they would leave there basememt door open and they had a wood burner in the entry room and I could build a fire when I first got there and then when I got out of the water it would be nice and warm for me. They just laughed at my resistance so I finally told them that I would do that.

We walked down to the beach area and he told me it was just a small beach, which it was. It was no more than sixty or seventy ft wide and it was only maybe fifty ft from the shore line to the weeds. Very small area! The thing is, this is good. Everything would be consentrated in a small area. I found that it was very mucky and weedy in the deep water and on both sides of the little beach but the beach was sand, that they must have brought in years ago.

I got there number and the next chance I got I called and told them that I would be coming the next day if it was ok. He laughed and told me that I can come any time and they would be home.

I drove over the next day, which was a Saturday and backed close to the beach area. I was using my hookah and I hauled everything to the waters edge. It was a cold blustery day and I was wearing my dry suit. A dry suit is just that. Instead of relying on a thin layer of water to keep you warm, as in a wet suit, you wear a warm suit, something like a snowmobile suit, under it. That is what I used when diving under the ice.

He walked down and we chatted as I got into my suit and rigged up. I was not sure what the conditions were gonna be but I was expecting to find something. There is always something lost on a beach and since nobody had ever hunted this one there had to be some goodies. The owner, Ted, had gone up to the house and he said he would watch for me to come up and have the coffee ready.

Because of the shallow water and the dry suit, which holds a lot of air, I had to use 45 lbs of weight on my waste and ankle weights to keep me on bottom. It is very rough on the small of the back after a while because your chest and arms hold a lot of air and you are being held down by the waste. It is a un-nautral bend to the back. I waded out to my chest and dropped to the bottom. The visibility was pretty good.

I started out by just swimming out and to the left and right to see the limits of the beach. It was small. I started swinging the detector and getting hits immediately. Like the Dodge Park Beach, there were hits all over the place. Almost all of the silver was SILVER. I found about a half dozen rings too on that first dive. I will not pretend to remember what all I found but I had a bag full when I finally got tired. I was down a couple hours and finally called it a day.

I crawled out and headed for the basement room. It was as warm as toast and I welcomed it.

They called down and asked me to come up for coffee and cookies. I was ready for that! His wife was a sweetheart and treated me like a dang son! They asked if I had found anything and I just happened to have my goodie bag with me. I asked for a paper plate and when it was given to me I dumped my goodies out on the plate. They were stunned! Like I say, I can not remember exactly what I found but she leaned over and just stared. There were rings, both a few gold and silver. She picked up one and said it was beautiful. I told her it was hers, in fact anything I had there that she liked, she was welcome to it. She said, with big eyes, “Oh no. You found it, It is yours” I laughed and told her that I don’t wear many rings and my fun was finding it. I again urged her to take any rings she wanted. Well she just looked and hesitantly picked at them. I could see that there were three that were really nice and she liked them. I just handed them to her. She was one happy lady and I had a friend.

After that I went back about five times before I pretty much cleaned it out. To the right of the beach was a big area that was full of old bottles, hundreds of them! I picked through and took some but it was so mucky and weedy it was hard to even see after you disturbed it a little.

Ted told me that his sons girlfriend had lost a big diamond ring in the water at the base of a Pine tree, he showed me the spot but for some reason I never hunted for it. He said if I found it it was mine as it happened a long time ago and he didn’t like her anyway. I don’t know why I never hunted it. It would have been an easy find as she was just squatting and washing her hands.

Like I said, I have no idea how mush silver I found there but I did keep track of rings, sorta. I found 29 rings on that beach in the dives I made. I never kept track of how many gold or silver, just a mixture.

What I found never meant much to me, it is the quest and after I get them home I just throw them in a jar. I once took a bunch of gold rings and scrapped them out for a new detector. I still have a bunch but honestly have no clue where they are. I packed all that stuff away in anticipation of moving so am not sure where I put it.

I have not seen that couple in many years but they were special. After that first dive I did use their kitchen and make coffee when they were not there.

I hope you found this of interest.