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Volume 4, Issue 20
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It’s fair DVD on Point Pelee shipwrecks released time! By Bryan Jessop In documenting local shipwrecks, a Windsor man and his wife are getting straight to the ‘Point’. Cris Kohl and his wife Joan Forsberg officially released a 59-minute DVD video titled “Point Pelee Shipwrecks” on Monday, June 3 after having completed production the previous week. The video documents 43 shipwrecks near the shores of the local national park, including underwater photos and video footage. “We were originally aiming for 45 minutes, but we got carried away,” Kohl said with a laugh. “There’s lots of information available, so it was hard to decide what to leave out and what to put in. We wanted to finish production last summer, but there was too much on the go — we worked on it for quite awhile. We decided to go with the wrecks that are the most interesting, most historic and as it turned out, most tragic.” Kohl has been an avid scuba diver for several decades, having made his first shipwreck dive in 1974 in Tobermory — the scuba diving capital of Canada — for “The Sweepstakes,” a wooden schooner. It was the same location where he first introduced his wife to shipwreck diving roughly 22 years later. Since taking on his interest first hand nearly 40 years ago, Kohl has explored more than 700 shipwrecks, including some off the coasts of North Carolina, Australia and Hawaii. The wrecks of the Great Lakes have been his most central focus however, as he and Joan combined efforts to
The 165th edition of the Leamington Fair will kick off this Friday night at the Leamington Fairgrounds with Opening Ceremonies at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Janette Mulholland building. Friday, June 14 Live harness racing hits the track at 7 p.m. and at 9 p.m. there is live music with Raising Cane under the grandstand. Saturday, June 15 On Saturday the gates open at 9 a.m. and buildings open at 10 a.m. with a pet show. At 11 a.m. it’s Too Tall Queen children’s entertainment. At 12 noon there will be 20 bike and helmet giveaways. From 1 until 3 p.m. there will be a native presentation in front of the activity centre. At 2 p.m. at the grandstand it’s Legends of Wrestling. From 3 p.m. until 4 p.m. is Spin Cycle at the activity centre. And at 6 p.m. be sure to catch the Lyndy Wiper Antique Tractor Parade. Saturday evening watch the thrills and spills of the Thrill Show by Impact Motor Sports starting at 7:30 p.m. From 8 p.m. until 11 p.m. students can buy a Teenage Midnight Madness unlimited rides pass for $17. Raising Cane will play at 9 p.m. under the grandstand. Sunday, June 16 Sunday’s lineup begins at 11 a.m. with Too Tall Queen children’s activities and 20 more bike and helmet giveaways at 12 at the grandstand. At 1 p.m. is the Demolition Derby brought to you by Impact Motor Sports. An aboriginal pow wow will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at the activity centre with Spin Cycle children’s entertainment beginning at 3 p.m.
This is an underwater photo of the steamer “Conemaugh’s” propeller hub — most of the propeller blades were sheared off when the ship was stranded at Point Pelee in 1906. Diver Joyce Hayward examines the large artifact.
publish eight books and 12 DVDs (some publications are available in both book and DVD formats) through their company Seawolf Communicaitons. Kohl began photographing Point Pelee shipwrecks in the mid 1980s and wrote his first book in 1985 before meeting his wife to be. Joan was also a scuba diving enthusiast before they met, although most of her dives were focused on tropic locations. Together, they began producing DVDs in 2009. Before moving to Windsor when he was four, Kohl’s family lived on a farm along what is now rural Leamington’s 5th Concession, east of Highway 77. Kohl explained that some of his earliest recollections are of growing up on the family farm before moving to Windsor. The Kohls first visited Point Pelee National Park with Cris when he was two years old and after moving to the city, he recalls several fond memories of continued visits to the ‘Tip of Canada’.
“I’ve always loved the water,” he explained. “Some of my early memories are of swimming at Point Pelee, off East Beach. I spent a lot of time at Point Pelee as a teen, whenever a friend or I could borrow one of our dads’ cars. Whether it was canoeing or hanging around at the beach, it was a lot of fun.” Kohl noted that more than 200 of the 6,000 shipwrecks that have taken place in the Great Lakes occurred near Point Pelee. He has explored about 40 of these local wrecks, “depending on what’s considered ‘near Point Pelee’,” he added. Several decades ago, naval traffic sent an average of 30 to 40 ships per day past Point Pelee, many carrying cargo of lumber, coal, grain or after the opening of the Lake Superior canal, iron ore. One of Kohl’s favourite Point Pelee shipwreck stories involves the Clarion, a composite ship of wood and iron that sunk during a nighttime storm in December of 1909. A deck fire that
broke out on the vessel separated 13 crew members at the bow from six others at the stern. The 13 at the bow, with access to a lifeboat, departed aboard the smaller vessel in a desperate attempt to reach Point Pelee’s shore — they were never seen again and their remains have yet to be found. Six men at the stern were rescued by Captain Matthew Anderson of the steamer Leonard C. Hanna in dramatic fashion, reaching the last of the six and pulling him aboard just before he was consumed by flames. Wood sections of the Clarion were destroyed by the fire, but its iron remains intact under about 70 feet of water. Kohl and Forsberg have recorded a great deal of video footage of the Clarion. Kohl noted that only about 50 of Point Pelee’s shipwrecks have been found. Although pieces of ships sporadically wash (Continued on Page 2)
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