LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — For the last three years, Ken Wige has taken pride in scouring the depths of Willow Beach to bring any debris and junk out of the water.
It goes back to what an instructor taught him, pick up something if you see something.
““First time I went up river, we called him Anchor Man because he would find anchors all over the place. I was like ‘bro take me with you.’ Then I bought his boat,” Wige said.
“After I bought his boat, I found so much trash. We’ve been pulling this much out almost every Saturday.”
It’s become a weekly routine.
Wige suiting up with his fellow divers, rarely coming up empty handed.
Noel “Iceman” Stark, Wige’s co-captain, told FOX 5 about items they have found that are so old, they may as well be considered artifacts.
“The old coke bottles is one that we kind of enjoy seeing. Ones from the 1920’s from Las Vegas, Nevada. We have a close to prohibition era Smirnoff bottle. These are some of the old bottles that we find,” Stark said.
“We’re still finding stuff from the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s that has been down there. Every time they release water from the dam. It rolls the silt and sand on the bottom and that brings up more stuff that’s been buried over the years.”
So much history being found in the same 1 1/2 mile stretch of Willow Beach for years.
Of course a lot of garbage is found amongst the more “hidden treasures”, but that’s also the original mission.
Wige has appreciated the support from beachgoers as well as state agencies trying to keep things clean.
“We came out here and did a cleanup with the Department of Fish & Wildlife. They said ‘can you guys join us? You’re picking up way more than we pick up.’ We were like ‘heck yeah! we want to be involved in that as well,” Wige said.
“It’s incredible and we can’t do this without all of my friends.”
We found out about Wige’s diving crew after they found a Boulder City couple’s wedding ring a few weeks ago.
What seems impossible became a miracle, one of many stories these divers have of returning lost items.
“A guy called us up and said ‘I lost my wallet. I’m getting ready to get on an airplane, my REAL ID is in there.’ We went out, we went down, found it, pulled it up, handed it to him and he was able to make his flight the next day,” Stark said
“We have returned cell phones all across the country. We’ve returned them to Hawaii, we’ve returned them to foreign countries. Sometimes the people are ecstatic. I know one person lost their cell phone that had baby pictures on it that they didn’t have backed up to the cloud yet. When we found the phone we were able to recover their baby pictures.”
Wige has helped build a community of sorts, passionate about scuba diving and improving the environment.
“The rewarding part is just incredible. Everybody finds something. We’re going to post on Facebook what someone would and their grandkids are going to see that,” Wige said.
“The ripple effect is just incredible of how it stretches down the line. Story after story. Just incredible.”
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