The  Chestatee River Diving Bell

by Christopher Worick and Manuel B. Carvalho  ©

For over a century the secrets of the Diving Bell were held beneath the murky waters of the Chestatee River.  On October 18, 1876, the Diving Bell and its boat sank under mysterious circumstances. While ending the short career of the only manned submersible gold mining operation in Georgia, it did not end the mystery of how it sank or where it came from.

Unlike a submarine, which is self contained and moves under its own propulsion, the Diving Bell is an open-bottomed pressurized submersible which is tethered to a surface vessel.  Raised and lowered through a well in the boat this diving bell was built specifically to mine for gold at the bottom of the Chestatee River.

 

The diving bell and boat made their appearance in September of 1875.  Within a little over a year the dreams of the Loud Mining Company would end as their boat disappeared under mysterious  circumstances  beneath the river depths taking the diving bell with it on its final descent.  The only visible reminder was the airlock protruding  from the river, like a silent sentry eternally keeping watch. [Photo at right courtesy of Charles Satterfield.]

Time moves on and memories fade.  

Decades later local residents familiar with the strange tube in the river thought it was a stack from an old steam boat but couldn't understand why it was sealed up at the top.  In 1981 two recreational gold prospectors, John Winegard and Henry Preston Wilkerson, believed that they might find gold around the sunken boat.  Diving around the tube they began to clear away decades of sand and debris.  To their amazement they discovered that what was buried in the river was not only a mining boat but also a diving bell along with it!  With the help of James Jones, the Owens' Farm foreman, and some of the local workers and three changes in heavy machinery, they were able to free the diving bell from its watery grave.  After 105 years, the Diving Bell was finally able to have its story unfold.

The Bell was a point of interest to many over the years and particularly so to local author Anne Amerson [seen at right about a decade, ca. 1991, after the bell was pulled from the river] who did extensive research for her published articles in the North Georgia Journal [Winter 1989 and May 2002], in the Dahlonega Nugget [3B, 3/26/1992], in her I Remember Dahlonega vol. 2 and 4 [Chestatee Publications, 1997] book series and in Georgia Backroads  magazine [Autumn 2008]. In 1995, the Owens family who owned the property on which the bell was located wanted to donate the craft to the Dahlonega Gold Museum.   Although the idea did find support among the local population, the project was ultimately turned down by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources [DNR].  Due to the size of the Bell the DNR felt that it would mar the appearance of the museum and the project languished.

In the Spring of 2007, two visiting divers  heard the story about the diving bell and became interested in seeing it for themselves.  Upon viewing the craft, they realized that this was something very old and unusual.  They began emailing and made inquiries in Historical Diver Magazine  

requesting anyone from the nautical community with information about the bell to contact them.  One lucky phone call to the Smithsonian Institution was referred to Wendy Coble at the archives of the US Navy Shipyard.  Wendy then contacted Dr. James Delgado of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.  Dr. Delgado took an interest in the story  and began researching the diving bell, calling it a "unique, rare and highly significant" example of  "early American diving technology"  that is "nationally significant" based on photos taken of the submersible.  after searching patents and old illustrations of early diving bell, Delgado theorized this diving bell appeared to bear the hallmarks of an 1858 patented design created by Benjamin Maillefert of Astoria, New York.  

• Achasta (A Reynolds Signature Community)  and new owner of the golfing community agreed to donate the Chestatee River Diving Bell to the City of Dahlonega. 
• The City accepted ownership of the Bell and agreed to its preservation and display in Hancock Park. 
• The Institute of Nautical Archaeology took on the Bell as a formal archaeological project and agreed to provide guidance and assistance in documenting, conserving, preserving, and interpreting the bell.
• The Lumpkin County Historical Society, Inc., a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, agreed to make the Chestatee River Diving Bell a formal historical preservation project and to serve as the tax-receipting agency  for accepting donations and making disbursements on behalf of the project.  The Society provided $5,000 seed money for the project.
• The Chestatee River Diving Bell Committee, an ad hoc citizens’ group, agreed to assist in the process of documentation, conservation, preservation, interpretation and display of the bell and to meet as necessary to direct the project.

In 2010 the Diving Bell garnered national attention when Joe Porter published an article about it in issue 20 of Wreck Diving  magazine.

With the necessary funds still lacking to properly restore the diving bell it looked as though the project might once again fail.  Through the efforts of Bill and Helen Hardman and Mike and Lynn Cottrell a  fund raising committee was started.  Mike Cottrell  volunteered to use his Gainesville facility  to completely refurbish and repaint the diving bell.   On July 31st, 2010 at the Cottrell Ranch, with over 500 people in attendance, the fully restored Chestatee River Diving Bell made its reappearance to the public.  The fund raiser coupled with a grant garnered almost one hundred thousand dollars to complete the project of displaying this historical artifact.

A plaza designed  by architect Richard Owens was completed in November 2012  to house the Diving Bell on public display in Dahlonega’s Hancock Park where this unique and only example of this type of submersible craft known to exist in the United States will once again cause wonder as it did when its journey first began.  The dedication ceremony for the plaza was held on 30 Nov. 2012.  This video below provides  a brief overview:

Diving Bell Plaza Ceremony