'Treasure' hunter seeks boats, not riches

LAKE POWELL — Over the next couple of months, Jim Cross will be exploring old, sunken vessels. Any treasure they may hold is likely to be nothing more than old sunglasses, half-used bottles of suntan lotion and, at best, some spare change.

But it's not the treasures he's after, it's the boats.

His objective is to find and remove old boats that, for whatever reason over the years, sunk to a watery grave in Lake Powell.

Thus far, between 30 and 40 boats and aircraft that either were or are currently underwater have been targeted for pickup.

"We feel there could be as many as 100 to 150 boats," said Steve Ward, director of public relations for Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas.

"Our list grows every day. Every time we fly over the lake we spot another boat. At this point we've only covered about 30 percent of the lake from the air."

Recovery and removal of the old boats, said Cross, CEO of Cross Marine Projects out of Orem, was made possible, in part, because of the low water level.

In some cases the receding water has left boats on dry land, sitting on ledges and buttes or wedges in deep cracks in rock cliffs. In other cases the boats remain buried by several feet of water.

"We plan to use a variety of methods to remove the craft," said Cross, "everything from helicopters to mountain-climbing gear to using helmeted divers."

Cross said he came up with the plan while on a bass fishing trip with his son last fall. On that trip he chanced upon the remains of an old boat resting on shore.

"I said to myself that with the low water this would be an ideal time to recover and remove some of the boats," he added. "I contacted the (National Park Service), and they put me in touch with the right people.

"I put on a presentation for them to show my capabilities and suggested working through a nonprofit group (Cross International Search and Recovery Foundations), which has, over the years, been involved in a number of humanitarian projects."

One of those connections was the on-going Trash Tracker program started in 1990 by ARAMARK, stewards of the lake's marinas and concessions.

The trash program is handled through Lake Powell Resorts and NPS. Volunteers spend up to five days combing the shores of the lake removing trash. The program is responsible for cleaning up about 3,000 miles of shoreline each year. Last year, an estimated 59,000 pounds of trash was removed.