Six-Shooters, Lost Phones, and the Divers Who Bring Them Back
A Las Vegas woman once broke down crying when a diver handed back the phone she was sure she’d lost for good. It still held the video of her grandchild’s birth. Ken Wige had found it on the bottom of the Colorado River below the Hoover Dam — one of 254 phones he and his team have pulled from a single two-mile stretch over four years, fifty of them returned to the people who thought they were gone forever.
That’s the kind of story that made this week’s Cowboy State Daily feature impossible for us to scroll past. It’s about the divers of the Mountain West — the ones who don’t have coral reefs or sharks, but who surface with antique six-shooters, 1920s Coca-Cola bottles, pop-top-less Coors cans, outboard motors, and the occasional wedding ring lost off a cliff jump and found three weeks later.
And it’s about a name a lot of Utah divers already know: Tony “Gunner” Pierce of Provo — better known online as Tony “Nitrox.” A dive instructor and long-haul trucker, Tony has spent years pushing back on a myth: that there’s nowhere good to dive in the West, and nowhere to find a dive buddy if you’re new. His answer has been about as generous as it gets. “A long time ago, I pretty much said if anybody wants to go dive with me for free,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s just the love of diving and being able to connect with new families, new friends.”
Tony schedules a full year of dives in advance, lines up the permissions, and invites anyone with gear to show up. When Evanston, Wyoming, wanted to know what ice fishermen had left at the bottom of Sulphur Creek and Woodruff Narrows reservoirs, they called him. He brought a team, swept both bottoms, and came back with good news: no leaking gas, no oil, no abandoned machines — just a few lost hats and fishing poles. Clean water. His favorite place to dive is Flaming Gorge, where the original timbers, ropes, and cables cut to build the reservoir still rest against a sheer underwater cliff. “It’s just absolutely mind-blowing,” he said.
If you read the article closely, you’ll spot something that made us smile: one of the photos is courtesy of Fathom Restoration — our divers exploring Tibble Fork Reservoir, right here in Utah. We’re proud to be part of this community, and prouder still to share the water with people who treat it the way Tony does.
The treasure is the fun part. But under the novelty is something we take seriously. Every phone, motor, and wallet these divers haul up is one less object breaking down in water that Western communities drink, fish, and float on. Wige’s crew alone has recovered two firearms, three boat engines, 15 Apple Watches, dozens of GoPros, and those 254 phones — keeping all of it out of the Colorado. Firearms and suspected historic items go to the National Park Service; the rest gets cleaned up or returned. That’s stewardship, done one dive at a time.
We started Fathom Restoration to recover submerged vehicles, vessels, and debris from Utah’s lakes and waterways and to protect the water quality our communities depend on. We’re not the only ones who love these waters — and we’re glad of it. So to Tony Nitrox, Ken Wige, and every diver giving up a weekend for the love of it: thank you. The West’s waters are better for having you in them.
Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to lake cleanup and the recovery of submerged vehicles, vessels, and debris from Utah’s lakes and waterways. Donate / Volunteer / Report a vehicle at fathomrestoration.org.
