Diving into history: Flathead Maritime Archeology expands underwater archiving and stewardship

Flathead Maritime Archeology project introduced a new crew member to the community during a presentation at Bigfork Art and Cultural Center Friday, August 9: Dr. Calvin Mires of Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute.  

Mires’s family is from Montana, he attended Boulder Jefferson High School outside of Helena and later the University of Montana to study Latin. While in school, he took a trip to Italy and discovered a love for ancient civilizations. Working on the east coast after school, Mires took scuba lessons and decided to combine his passions into a career – maritime archeology. 

He studied at East Carolina University, one of the only colleges to teach maritime archeology. Mires wrote his master’s thesis on the steamboats of Glacier National Park. Now, he is a professor and works with Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute out of Massachusetts. He has explored and documented shipwrecks around the world.  

“[Mires] agreed to come out for the week, work with us by doing our project, work with students, teach them the process he does and create a long-term plan about really exploring the lake,” BACC executive director Julie Bottum said.  

The key of maritime archeology, Mires explained, is understanding the people and times before us and attempting to document history before it is gone.  

“How do you value heritage? How do you value your history?” he asked the crowd. Mires discussed an idea for an underwater park in Columbus, Ohio, where his goal was to find out if people would support the area’s preservation.  

“What it really taught me was, people have different opinions about heritage and they have their own heritage and history that they value,” he said.  

The goal of the Flathead Maritime Archeology project, orchestrated by BACC, is to document the shipwrecks of the Flathead and share their historical significance. Bottum explained that the project started when she took a group of kids out to explore Flathead Lake’s wrecks and found them asking questions such as, ‘How long will the boats be preserved?’ 

“We know now that we need to preserve these sites somehow, have some type of record of them for the future,” Bottum said. 

The project has already documented sunken ships such as the Kee-O-Mee, one of the most recognizable boats on the lake around the 1930s, which sank off of Somers in 1937.  

“Since the first time we’ve been down there, the propeller’s been taken off,” said Jeremy Weber, former editor of the Bigfork Eagle and researcher on the maritime project.  

“We’ve been on the Kee-O-Mee several times, and as we go back down, things are missing, things that don’t drift off, they’re being cut off and taken up and in private hands,” Bottum said. “Our goal is to archive these things before they disappear.”

Weber noted that the maritime project has a three-page list of boats that have reportedly sunk in the Flathead. In the future, they also hope to do more exploration of Glacier National Park’s lakes and possibly Swan Lake, which may house a sunken locomotive. 

BACC is also currently working with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes on the Flathead Reservation to determine if they would like artifacts on the southern part of Flathead Lake documented. 

Bottum noted that unless they are invited to document CSKT sites, the maritime project will focus solely on white settlers’ history to prevent tribal sites from being exploited. 

“What we don’t want to do is go underwater or close to the shores to those places that they have specifically left in place and notify the rest of the world that they’re there,” Bottum said.  

Fugro International, a geodata company, has partnered with the maritime project to collect scans of Flathead Lake and photogrammetry – a process that will create a 3D map of sites. Bigfork High School students Gabrielle Thorson and Landen Lanier will join the crews in September to help collect data and create museum displays for BACC.  

Objects are not being recovered by the Flathead Maritime Archeology project, only recorded. When asked if there could be potential protection for Flathead Lake’s underwater archeological sites, Mires replied, “Enforcement is not a priority and also not necessarily the best method for preservation, because once you start enforcing... it creates a sense of freedoms taken away.” 

“It comes to creating a sense of connection...it comes through education, that’s where it starts.” 

Divers or pontoon boat owners willing to donate their time this September are welcome to join the project, to learn more contact Bottum at director@baccbigfork.org.  

    Dr. Calvin Mires presents at Bigfork Art and Cultural Center Friday, August 9. (Courtesy/Julie Bottum)