Dive unit pulls two vehicles out of the Mississppi

One truck had been there a decade

People like to pull fish out of the Mississippi River.

Sometimes, maybe you get a boot. OK, that’s probably just in cartoons.

Friday, however, the La Crosse Dive Unit went to the river hoping to pull out a truck and was surprised to also find a car at the bottom of the river.

Earl Steele took his 2016 Chevy Colorado on a joy ride to and through Houska Park on April 17, and ended up in the Mississippi – along with an OWI.

The dive unit couldn’t pull it out until conditions improved. That was Friday.

And that’s where the unit discovered, not just Steele’s truck, but also a station wagon that’s apparently been there for around a decade.

“We started out a couple weeks ago running side-scan sonar,”  dive leader Marshall Quakenboss said. “We located the vehicles and got a good image of how they were resting at the bottom.”

Quakenboss says the water conditions were much more favorable than a month ago when they first got the call. 

“When we first came out and looked at the station wagon site,” he continued, “the river was quite a bit higher, but the flow meant you only would want to go down there if it was a rescue situation.”