Odd (and sometimes terrifying) things found at the bottom of American lakes
A British warship from 1758 sits 107 feet deep in Lake George, New York. Sonar found it in 1990, and it was still intact.
Lakes keep things. Cold, deep water slows decay, and what goes down tends to stay down. Six lakes follow, with what’s been found at the bottom: some odd, some sad, some unexplained. We say what’s documented and what’s disputed.
The oldest intact warship in North America is in Lake George
It’s called the Land Tortoise. It’s a seven-sided floating gun battery, 52 feet long, built by British and colonial troops in 1758, per the Lake George walking tour.
They sank it on purpose in October 1758 to hide it from the French under winter ice, one diving guide notes. The plan was to raise it in spring. It came to rest too deep.
Joseph Zarzynski’s team found it on June 26, 1990, with side-scan sonar. It’s the only radeau-class vessel ever found, the Museum of Underwater Archaeology says. It’s now a National Historic Landmark.
A ferry in Lake Champlain was powered by horses
In 1983, a sonar survey found a 63-foot wreck in Burlington Bay. Archaeologists assumed it was a steamboat, but Seven Days reports there was no metal machinery.
Then they found a turntable under the deck, like a treadmill. Horses walked on it, turning the paddle wheel. Technology and Culture notes it’s the only known archaeological example of its kind.
No one knows its name or when it was built, Lake Champlain Region says.
Lake Michigan might have a stone circle at the bottom
In 2007, underwater archaeologist Mark Holley was surveying shipwrecks in Grand Traverse Bay. He found a pattern of stones 40 feet down, with a rock that seems to show a mastodon, NBC Chicago reported.
The stones may be 9,000 years old, from when the lakebed was dry. Experts are divided on whether it’s deliberate or natural, Artnet notes. Its location is kept secret, partly out of respect for the area’s tribal communities.
The stones are small, far from a megalith. Likely they’re a natural feature, a Michigan news account said.
A passenger plane vanished into Lake Michigan in 1950
On June 23, 1950, Northwest Orient Flight 2501, a DC-4 with 58 people aboard, disappeared over the lake on a stormy night. About 13 hours later, a Coast Guard vessel found an oil slick and debris, Simple Flying recounts.
The main wreckage was never found. Investigators noted, “insufficient evidence upon which to make a determination of probable cause.”
For 20 years, the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association searched about 700 square miles at depths of 100 to 350 feet, the Spokesman-Review reported. The search ended in 2025. The group concluded the debris was too broken up to show on sonar.
Lake Superior keeps what it takes
The Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 10, 1975, with all 29 crew. It lies about 530 feet down, Wisconsin Frights notes. No bodies were recovered.
There’s a reason. Superior is the coldest and deepest Great Lake. Cold slows the bacteria that make a body bloat and float, EarthSky explains. The old saying that it keeps its victims is part folklore and part fact, Truth or Fiction notes.
It isn’t absolute. The saying doesn’t mean a body can never resurface.
Lake Mead is giving things back
On May 1, 2022, boaters found a rusted barrel at Hemenway Harbor. Inside were the remains of a man who’d been shot, CNN reports. The case is still unsolved, and he’s still unidentified.
The mob theories were speculation. A British tabloid was the first to lead with it, Skeptoid notes. Other remains found since include a man who drowned in 2002, CBS News reported. Six sets in all have turned up since 2022, USA Today’s tally says.
The falling water has also exposed a World War II landing craft and the ghost town of St. Thomas. A B-29 bomber still lies in the Overton Arm.
The bottom line
The Land Tortoise has sat in 107 feet of water since October 1758. The Flight 2501 search covered 700 square miles over 20 years and never found the plane.
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