• Secretary– Beth Plotner welcomed everyone on behalf of Robert Rushman who was unable to attend this month as well as reporting on the minutes.
• Treasurer – Julie Scheibe gave the balance of the treasury.

Business Meeting

• Illinois Department of Natural Resources – No updates. Illinois Costal Area proposed name of Marine Park for Lake Michigan.
• NAS field school was held this month from July 12^th to July 27^th.
• Research class at the National Archives - Jim Jarecki reported that over 20 people attended.
• ICSSD – Claire Gadbois reported the Presidents Night Dinner is to be held on October 25 the last Saturday in October at Klas Restaurant in Cicero tickets are priced $35 before September 1^st. The Jim Haigh Memorial dive was held on July 20^th. September 20^th is beach cleanup dive in Evanston at Greenwood beach where the George Morley is located.
• Maritime Society reported exhibits are well into the planning state
• Chicago Scuba Meetup – Dean Nolan reported that the speaker for next month’s meeting is from the Alliance For The Great Lakes.
• Survey Reports –
• Car Ferry - John Bell said the project should be completed soon.
• Silver Spray - Beth Plotner reported Jonathan is expected to have a report at the August meeting.
• Solon H. Johnson – Tony reported that some more work was done.
• ·UASC Wrex – Julie Scheibe had nothing new to report.
• Thursday night charters – We had an outing to the Silver Spray on July 10^th where a group of 6 were able to get more measurements and do other work.
• Next meeting is August 27^th and the guest speaker is TBD

Other Business

None

Featured Speaker: Gary Mechanic

Topic: History of the Chicago Portage

A small unremarkable ditch on the west side of Harlem just north of the Stevenson Expressway is protected by National Historic Site status in Portage Woods Forest Preserve. The Short and Shallow ditch is the reason great city grew near it and is a key link in Chicago’s largely unknown birth story. Chicago owes its very existence to the location of the Chicago Portage.

Gary Mechanic is the founder of Friends of the Chicago Portage and a veteran storyteller. Gary will present an overview of Chicago’s only National Historic Site along with a short documentary on the site’s significance and a brief tour of the archeological finds on the site.