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Is that a garage? Side-imaging technology brings bottom of the Red River into focus

GRAND FORKS, N.D.--As a Coast Guard-licensed catfish guide, Brad Durick of Grand Forks uses technology to locate the whiskery denizens of the Red River's murky depths.

A garage on its side downstream from the Point Bridge likely was a casualty of the Flood of 1997.
A garage on its side downstream from the Point Bridge likely was a casualty of the Flood of 1997.

GRAND FORKS, N.D.-As a Coast Guard-licensed catfish guide, Brad Durick of Grand Forks uses technology to locate the whiskery denizens of the Red River's murky depths.

These days, Durick runs a Humminbird Helix 10 G2N (which stands for "Generation 2 Networkable") depthfinder with MEGA Imaging on his guide boat. That's a big name for a unit with an abundance of bells and whistles, but suffice to say it does more than show water depth and blips on the screen that represent fish.

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Without getting too deep into the technology, Durick's depth finder, which retails for about $1,700, offers a bank-to-bank look at the bottom of the river, providing up to 400 feet of imaging on either side of the boat. Released to the public in 2017, the Helix 10 G2N's side-imaging technology allows him to literally "see" the fish in the river's murky depths.

But he also sees a lot more.

Durick recently shared a collection of screen captures of objects he's come across on the bottom of the Red and Red Lake rivers in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.

You'll probably be surprised at what's down there.

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A garage on its side downstream from the Point Bridge likely was a casualty of the Flood of 1997.

Yep, that's a garage alright

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When Durick came across a structure on the bottom of the Red River-clearly visible on the left side of the center line representing his boat and the top of the water column-he initially thought it was a fish house.

Upon further review, after visiting with another fisherman who runs similar technology, Durick says they decided the the building actually is a single-car garage.

It's lying on the bottom of the river just around the corner from the Point Bridge, in front of the old Central Park. Mostly likely, the building ended up in the river during the Flood of 1997.

"The garage is lying on its side, the peak of the roof faces up to the top of your screen, the door is open or the whole wall is missing, and there is a hole in the roof," Durick says. "It looks like mostly just a frame with no siding but clearly a roof with a hole ripped in it."

This truck's no toy

About 80 feet downstream from the tipped-over garage, a truck rests on its side at the bottom of the river. Don't ask me how it works, but the depthfinder even shows the shadows of the wheels and the frame of the truck. Another flood casualty, perhaps?

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Truck on the bottom of the river.

Old wagon

In downtown Grand Forks, Durick came across a rather faint, ghostly image of an overturned wagon that has been at the bottom of the river for who knows how many years. By zooming in on the image, he was able to bring the spokes on the wheels into focus.

"The stuff downtown is amazing," Durick said. "There are some pilings and other things I did not get back to check, but you could spend days downtown imaging what's on the bottom of the river."

Sunken boat

Near the mouth of the Red Lake River in East Grand Forks, Durick found an overturned boat that sank to the bottom. The hull is clearly visible in the zoomed-in image.

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Brad Dokken joined the Herald company in November 1985 as a copy editor for Agweek magazine and has been the Grand Forks Herald's outdoors editor since 1998.

Besides his role as an outdoors writer, Dokken has an extensive background in northwest Minnesota and Canadian border issues and provides occasional coverage on those topics.

Reach him at bdokken@gfherald.com, by phone at (701) 780-1148 or on X (formerly Twitter) at @gfhoutdoor.
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