Green Bay Press Gazette
August 20, 2012
A scuba diver missing since Sept. 4, 1999, was found by a group of divers in Lake Michigan Saturday in Door County.
Dirk C. Kann, 52, of Guttenberg, Iowa, was reported missing while diving with two other men at the wreck of the Lakeland, a steamer that sank with a load of cars in 1924. Kann's body was one mile east of Whitefish Point in the town of Sevastopol near Whitefish Bay. Whitefish Point is located between Whitefish Dunes State Park and Lily Bay along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Divers reported seeing what was believed to be Kann in the past but until Saturday efforts to recover it were unsuccessful. In July of 2002 divers found a body believed to be that of Kann, but underwater attempts to again locate the body, weather or equipment problems prevented recovery.
On Saturday divers found a middle-aged man, still in his wet suit, about 200 feet below the surface, and brought the body to the surface. They then contacted the U.S. Coast Guard who contacted the sheriff's department around 3:15 p.m.
His body was taken to Green Bay for an autopsy where it was positively identified Monday.
"We had known he was missing. In fact we had made numerous attempts (to recover the body)," Door County Sheriff Terry Vogel said.
On Sept. 4, 1999, Kann was surfacing from a dive in 175 feet of water when he was last seen by his dive partner, a 49-year-old Appleton man, according to a Door County Advocate account at the time. Both Kann and a dive partner experienced problems on their way up and Kann was last seen at the 80-foot mark on the dive line, where he remained to compress – a requirement in deep dives to prevent the buildup of harmful nitrogen bubbles in the blood.
His partner continued to the 40-foot decompression mark and after surfacing, he and a 60-year-old Delafield diver who remained in the boat, pulled in the dive line, but Kann was not there. Bottles for decompression and emergency air, fastened at the point where Kann was last seen, were functional and still contained air. All three men were experienced divers, but the site is hazardous due to the depth and strong currents in that area.
Besides being an avid scuba diver, Kann was an inventor and had several business ventures. He founded a recumbent bicycle company, Linear Mfg., in Iowa in the mid 1980s. That company has since been sold but Kann Mfg., started by his father, still manufactures marine boats, barges and garbage trucks in Guttenberg, Iowa and is a major employer in that small community. A son and daughter work at Kann but declined comment. He is also survived by his wife, Rose.
The sheriff's department was assisted at the scene by the medical examiner's office, the Sturgeon Bay Police Department and the Coast Guard. The scene was cleared by 7 p.m.
August 20, 2012
A scuba diver missing since Sept. 4, 1999, was found by a group of divers in Lake Michigan Saturday in Door County.
Dirk C. Kann, 52, of Guttenberg, Iowa, was reported missing while diving with two other men at the wreck of the Lakeland, a steamer that sank with a load of cars in 1924. Kann's body was one mile east of Whitefish Point in the town of Sevastopol near Whitefish Bay. Whitefish Point is located between Whitefish Dunes State Park and Lily Bay along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Divers reported seeing what was believed to be Kann in the past but until Saturday efforts to recover it were unsuccessful. In July of 2002 divers found a body believed to be that of Kann, but underwater attempts to again locate the body, weather or equipment problems prevented recovery.
On Saturday divers found a middle-aged man, still in his wet suit, about 200 feet below the surface, and brought the body to the surface. They then contacted the U.S. Coast Guard who contacted the sheriff's department around 3:15 p.m.
His body was taken to Green Bay for an autopsy where it was positively identified Monday.
"We had known he was missing. In fact we had made numerous attempts (to recover the body)," Door County Sheriff Terry Vogel said.
On Sept. 4, 1999, Kann was surfacing from a dive in 175 feet of water when he was last seen by his dive partner, a 49-year-old Appleton man, according to a Door County Advocate account at the time. Both Kann and a dive partner experienced problems on their way up and Kann was last seen at the 80-foot mark on the dive line, where he remained to compress – a requirement in deep dives to prevent the buildup of harmful nitrogen bubbles in the blood.
His partner continued to the 40-foot decompression mark and after surfacing, he and a 60-year-old Delafield diver who remained in the boat, pulled in the dive line, but Kann was not there. Bottles for decompression and emergency air, fastened at the point where Kann was last seen, were functional and still contained air. All three men were experienced divers, but the site is hazardous due to the depth and strong currents in that area.
Besides being an avid scuba diver, Kann was an inventor and had several business ventures. He founded a recumbent bicycle company, Linear Mfg., in Iowa in the mid 1980s. That company has since been sold but Kann Mfg., started by his father, still manufactures marine boats, barges and garbage trucks in Guttenberg, Iowa and is a major employer in that small community. A son and daughter work at Kann but declined comment. He is also survived by his wife, Rose.
The sheriff's department was assisted at the scene by the medical examiner's office, the Sturgeon Bay Police Department and the Coast Guard. The scene was cleared by 7 p.m.
Green Bay Press Gazette
August 20, 2012
A scuba diver missing since Sept. 4, 1999, was found by a group of divers in Lake Michigan Saturday in Door County.
Dirk C. Kann, 52, of Guttenberg, Iowa, was reported missing while diving with two other men at the wreck of the Lakeland, a steamer that sank with a load of cars in 1924. Kann's body was one mile east of Whitefish Point in the town of Sevastopol near Whitefish Bay. Whitefish Point is located between Whitefish Dunes State Park and Lily Bay along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Divers reported seeing what was believed to be Kann in the past but until Saturday efforts to recover it were unsuccessful. In July of 2002 divers found a body believed to be that of Kann, but underwater attempts to again locate the body, weather or equipment problems prevented recovery.
On Saturday divers found a middle-aged man, still in his wet suit, about 200 feet below the surface, and brought the body to the surface. They then contacted the U.S. Coast Guard who contacted the sheriff's department around 3:15 p.m.
His body was taken to Green Bay for an autopsy where it was positively identified Monday.
"We had known he was missing. In fact we had made numerous attempts (to recover the body)," Door County Sheriff Terry Vogel said.
On Sept. 4, 1999, Kann was surfacing from a dive in 175 feet of water when he was last seen by his dive partner, a 49-year-old Appleton man, according to a Door County Advocate account at the time. Both Kann and a dive partner experienced problems on their way up and Kann was last seen at the 80-foot mark on the dive line, where he remained to compress – a requirement in deep dives to prevent the buildup of harmful nitrogen bubbles in the blood.
His partner continued to the 40-foot decompression mark and after surfacing, he and a 60-year-old Delafield diver who remained in the boat, pulled in the dive line, but Kann was not there. Bottles for decompression and emergency air, fastened at the point where Kann was last seen, were functional and still contained air. All three men were experienced divers, but the site is hazardous due to the depth and strong currents in that area.
Besides being an avid scuba diver, Kann was an inventor and had several business ventures. He founded a recumbent bicycle company, Linear Mfg., in Iowa in the mid 1980s. That company has since been sold but Kann Mfg., started by his father, still manufactures marine boats, barges and garbage trucks in Guttenberg, Iowa and is a major employer in that small community. A son and daughter work at Kann but declined comment. He is also survived by his wife, Rose.
The sheriff's department was assisted at the scene by the medical examiner's office, the Sturgeon Bay Police Department and the Coast Guard. The scene was cleared by 7 p.m.
August 20, 2012
A scuba diver missing since Sept. 4, 1999, was found by a group of divers in Lake Michigan Saturday in Door County.
Dirk C. Kann, 52, of Guttenberg, Iowa, was reported missing while diving with two other men at the wreck of the Lakeland, a steamer that sank with a load of cars in 1924. Kann's body was one mile east of Whitefish Point in the town of Sevastopol near Whitefish Bay. Whitefish Point is located between Whitefish Dunes State Park and Lily Bay along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Divers reported seeing what was believed to be Kann in the past but until Saturday efforts to recover it were unsuccessful. In July of 2002 divers found a body believed to be that of Kann, but underwater attempts to again locate the body, weather or equipment problems prevented recovery.
On Saturday divers found a middle-aged man, still in his wet suit, about 200 feet below the surface, and brought the body to the surface. They then contacted the U.S. Coast Guard who contacted the sheriff's department around 3:15 p.m.
His body was taken to Green Bay for an autopsy where it was positively identified Monday.
"We had known he was missing. In fact we had made numerous attempts (to recover the body)," Door County Sheriff Terry Vogel said.
On Sept. 4, 1999, Kann was surfacing from a dive in 175 feet of water when he was last seen by his dive partner, a 49-year-old Appleton man, according to a Door County Advocate account at the time. Both Kann and a dive partner experienced problems on their way up and Kann was last seen at the 80-foot mark on the dive line, where he remained to compress – a requirement in deep dives to prevent the buildup of harmful nitrogen bubbles in the blood.
His partner continued to the 40-foot decompression mark and after surfacing, he and a 60-year-old Delafield diver who remained in the boat, pulled in the dive line, but Kann was not there. Bottles for decompression and emergency air, fastened at the point where Kann was last seen, were functional and still contained air. All three men were experienced divers, but the site is hazardous due to the depth and strong currents in that area.
Besides being an avid scuba diver, Kann was an inventor and had several business ventures. He founded a recumbent bicycle company, Linear Mfg., in Iowa in the mid 1980s. That company has since been sold but Kann Mfg., started by his father, still manufactures marine boats, barges and garbage trucks in Guttenberg, Iowa and is a major employer in that small community. A son and daughter work at Kann but declined comment. He is also survived by his wife, Rose.
The sheriff's department was assisted at the scene by the medical examiner's office, the Sturgeon Bay Police Department and the Coast Guard. The scene was cleared by 7 p.m.
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