Scuba diving in Marquette got its start when Scott Holman learned in the early 1960s. Holman, the first certified instructor in the area, started classes at NMU. In 1968 he invited George and Bettey Tomasi to attend. They became certified instructors and took over the NMU classes, expanding classes in the Continuing Education Department into more advanced diving.

After becoming certified scuba instructors, the Tomasis opened a scuba shop on Third Street, Lakeland Sports, which operated from about 1970-1987. George also ran a shipwreck boat tour in Munising. They had nine children who helped run the shop, teach and operate the tours.

In addition to making equipment available through their shop (including filling oxygen tanks), they also worked to get treatment options for emergencies. Divers can develop decompression sickness (also known as the bends) and need hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The treatment involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized room or tube.

At the time, hyperbaric oxygen therapy wasn’t available in the UP, and a helicopter ride to the closest in Milwaukee was not a solution.

Bettey and George Tomasi are pictured. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

The fact that the treatment can be used for other conditions besides diving helped sell the idea of a hyperbaric chamber to Marquette General Hospital.

During the winter the Tomasis taught the police under ice rescue diving. The Tomasis were also involved in underwater mine work, and Bettey helped build the Upper Harbor Marina.

Around 1980, the Tomasis were involved in the state legislation to form Alger and Marquette Underwater Preserves. Shipwreck diving has been a primary focus on diving in the Great Lakes.

Before the legislation, one could simply remove any part of a shipwreck. In some parts of the state, the old timbers were removed to make fine furniture.

Because of the laws, many of the original contents of the wrecks are still visible. The Marquette Underwater Preserve, which includes the Huron Islands and Big Bay, has twelve shipwrecks and one plane wreck.

One of George and Bettey’s students was Dan Fountain who started scuba diving in 1979. His first shipwreck “dive” took place at age eight — holding his breath and swimming down six feet to explore the scattered wreckage of the schooner George Sherman near the family camp on the Lake Superior Shore.

Since then, Dan has been diving, researching and searching for the shipwrecks of the Great Lakes.

Join the Marquette Regional History Center as Dan Fountain tells the tale of a group of shipwreck hunters who set out for the middle of Lake Superior in the summer of 2023.

They succeeded in finding an intact steel steamer in extremely deep water, but what was it?

Subsequent ROV dives to the wreck revealed its unexpected identity, and further research revealed that the wreck had tales to tell of rescue by a nearby freighter, the first trip on the lake for two young deckhands, and the veteran captain who wouldn’t (or couldn’t?) abandon ship and went down to a watery grave.

He Went Down with His Ship: Captain Burke and the Steamer Arlington begins at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5, at the Marquette Regional History Center. $5 suggested donation.