The Mysterious Shipwreck of the Grand Calumet River
Went out for a quick paddle on the Calumet River out of the 136th Street Boat Ramp. While the ramp is now closed to trailers by two large Jersey barriers, it still works perfectly fine for launching kayaks. The most interesting feature of this paddle is, of course, the shipwreck right at the mouth of the Grand Calumet River. Googling doesn't really come up with much as to how the ship ran aground there. I've heard that it was a tour boat out of Blue Island (my mind immediately questioning the demand for touring the Cal-Sag Channel and Little Calumet River) I've heard that it was deliberately put there by the Coast Guard to prevent other running aground on the notoriously shallow Grand Calumet. Indeed, the mouth of Grand Calumet is essentially a huge sandbar, at some places only inches deep. I've ran aground in the Grand Calumet's mouuth with my kayak there plenty of times. The only way to move up river is to hug the north bank of the Grand Calumet until it narrows a
