Finding treasure and beauty underwater does not require a trip to one of the nation’s coasts.
Divers in the Mountain West may not get to see sharks, colorful fish and coral reefs, but they pull out antique six-shooters or older Coors cans with no pop tops out of the Colorado River.
They also get views of the rock layers below the surface at Flaming Gorge Reservoir that few every see.
For Las Vegas’ Ken Wige, diving a stretch of the Colorado River below the Hoover Dam has become an ongoing treasure hunt involving recovering lost cellphones for people, wallets, a wedding ring, and even a couple of weapons.
One of those weapons he pulled from the river he can’t talk about except to say that it belonged to someone involved in “national defense,” but the other found about three years ago appeared to be a Western-style six-shooter in a holster that was covered in rust.
“If I were to guess, it probably was down there a good 10-plus years to be able to be stuck in the holster,” Wige said. “It was just an old Western revolver, it looked like. I was dying to get it out of there, but it would not come out.”
Fellow diver Tony “Gunner” Pierce of Provo, Utah — aka Tony “Nitrox” on social media dive pages — plans to join Wige this weekend on the river.
Like Wige, he is an advocate for diving in the West and enjoys rallying people to different spots from Wyoming to Utah and Idaho year-round to explore what is going on underneath the surface of reservoirs, rivers, and lakes.
Both men have enjoyed more traditional diving hotspots such as Florida or the Mexico coast, but they have stories to tell about the adventures much closer to home and cheaper for those who have the gear and want to enjoy a weekend under the water.
Pierce, a dive instructor, said he became interested in scuba nine years ago after taking his daughter Carly to a dive shop just to do a “discover” dive in a pool to see if they liked the sport.
That led to certifications and a trip to Florida for an open water dive.
Tony “Gunner” Pierce aka Tony “Nitrox” has made it a mission to promote low-cost diving events for fellow scuba lovers in the West. (Courtesy Tony Pierce) 
This wallet and cellphone are typical finds for divers who work downstream from the Hoover Dam. (Courtesy Ken Wige) 
Ken Wige said he and his divers have found three outboard motors in the Colorado River. (Courtesy Ken Wige)
'Hooked'
“We’ve been hooked ever since,” he said.
Pierce went on to get advanced certifications and not only become a dive instructor, but an advocate for dives that don’t cost a lot of money and bring divers together.
He said he wants to counter the criticism that in Utah and the West, there are no good places to dive and that new divers have trouble finding a dive buddy.
“A long time ago, I pretty much said if anybody wants to go dive with me for free ( they can go),” he said. “It’s just the love of diving and being able to connect with new families, new friends.”
He started posting on social media and now he schedules a year’s worth of dive events in advance, gets the permissions or whatever else is needed, and invites other divers to meet him on location.
A dive in May had him and others at Sulphur Creek and Woodruff Narrows reservoirs in the Evanston, Wyoming, area looking to see if any snowmobiles, four-wheelers or other craft were on the bottom left by ice fishermen.
He was recruited by the city of Evanston to do the dive.
Pierce said he talked with Wyoming Game and Fish and local law enforcement agencies, which told him they had no open cases related to missing equipment, but they were interested in him taking a look at what was below.
“We got there with other divers and except for the fishing pole, shoe, or hat or sunglasses — some trivial things — the bottom of both reservoirs were spotless,” he said. “There’s no leaking gas, no leaking oil, there’s no rubber in there.”
The boat that Ken Wige uses to navigate divers along the Colorado River. At right is one day’s haul for divers in a two-mile stretch of the Colorado River below Hoover Dam. (Courtesy Ken Wige) 
Divers who plunge the depths of the Colorado River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir find all kinds of treasure, from Old West six-shooters to cellphones. One woman burst into tears when given her phone back that had her grandchild’s birth video on it. Above, a veiw from Flaming Gorge Bridge. (Getty Images) 
Divers in a stretch of the Colorado River below the Hoover Dam show off their daily haul. (Courtesy Ken Wige)
Flaming Gorge
Pierce said his favorite place to dive is Flaming Gorge Reservoir south of Green River.
“When you dive off Flaming Gorge by the visitor dam it’s a sheer cliff,” he said. “The original timbers cut down to help build Flaming Gorge are still there, the ropes are there, the cables are there. It’s just absolutely mind-blowing.”
A long-haul trucker during the week, Pierce said a typical weekend dive for him involves maybe five or six divers.
They typically meet on a Friday and do a day dive, night dive, and another day excursion on Saturday.
Dives are kept to 100 feet and above, and the deeper dives will require some decompression stops before surfacing.
In Nevada, Wige, also a trucker, said he started diving seven years ago and is now a master diver.
A few years ago, he discovered the 2-mile stretch between Willow Beach and Emerald Cove downstream from the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.
He immediately came across cellphones, fishing lures, and other treasures to return to people. Wige said the current as water is released from the dam constantly uncovers items that he and other divers find along the bottom.
Since the waters are part of the National Park System, he has worked out a protocol with rangers that allows him to take cellphones pulled from the bottom to try and find their rightful owners.
Every dive, members of his team pull out trash as well as items such as old bottles fishing lures, wallets, and anything else that might fall out of a raft or kayak.
During the past four years, he and his associate divers have found two guns, three boat engines, 15 Apple Watches, 20-30 GoPro cameras, and 254 phones — 50 of which were returned to owners.
“It’s just amazing diving when you find something and can return it to someone,” Wige said. “A lady, I found her cellphone, and I contacted her and she wouldn’t stop crying. I’m like, ‘Ma’am, you phone is working.’
"She’s like, ‘No, you don’t understand, I came to Las Vegas to film my daughter giving birth. … You’re telling me I’m getting all that back.’”
Tony “Gunner” Pierce aka Tony “Nitrox” has made it a mission to promote low-cost diving events for fellow scuba lovers in the West. (Courtesy Tony Pierce) 
Divers explore the Tibble Fork Reservoir in Utah. (Courtesy Fathom Restoration) 
Divers who plunge the depths of the Colorado River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir find all kinds of treasure, from Old West six-shooters to cellphones. One woman burst into tears when given her phone back that had her grandchild’s birth video on it. (Will Eye via Alamy)
Soaking Phones
When they recover phones, Wige takes them home and soaks them in rubbing alcohol for a week and then tries to power them up to see if he can determine the owner.
If the phone owner cannot be determined within a year, he destroys the phone.
Wige said they’ve also pulled out Coca-Cola bottles from the 1920s and Coors beer cans that need a V-can opener.
Under federal rules, any firearms pulled out of the river as well as suspected historic items must be turned in to National Park Rangers.
He said the six-shooter pistol that he pulled out of the water was turned over to rangers.
Other old stuff they’ve seen below the water include railroad-like ties that appear they may have come off a sternwheeler or similar boat from the late 1800s.
“The wedding ring, they lost it jumping off cliffs,” he said. “They told us where it was and three weeks later, we made it up there with them. One of my divers found it and returned it.”
Wige said he does not try to sell anything he finds. The valuable recoveries are meant to be given back to owners. Some of the bottles his divers keep.
He has an ongoing list of people that he gifts the fishing lures to for free.
A typical outing involves maybe eight to 10 divers and Wige uses his powered rubber raft to go out in the river and drop four on five on location.
He then returns to the beach to get the others and when the first divers air is used up, the next set jump in.
Most of the time they are swimming in 20-40 feet of water, he said.
While he enjoys diving in Cozumel, Mexico, for a couple of weeks a year, finding lost treasures and returning them to others gives him the most enjoyment from the sport, Wige said.
“It just brings a whole new level of experience,” he said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
