Underwater logs and the aquarium

[eric myers 2]

Underwater logs and the aquarium 
Updated: 10/08/2005 11:36:16 AM
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A century ago and more, the woods of northern Minnesota were logged for the seemingly endless supply of trees. The easiest way to transport the huge logs was on the lakes and rivers and many became waterlogged and sank.

Today the bottoms of hundreds of Minnesota's lakes are littered with these trees that were eighty years old at the turn of the twentieth century. A fortune in high quality wood that has been hidden in the deep, murky waters…until now.
Craig Waddell is a log guy.

With the help of Chris Hinton and a specially designed and equipped pontoon, Waddell is taking inventory of the bottom of Minnesota's lakes.

"I have a better idea of what's in Minnesota's lakes than anyone in the State," Waddel said.

For the past few weeks, the two men have been trailing a sixty thousand dollar side scan radar through the deepest parts of the lakes. Logs that sank in the shallows were extracted years ago but at sixty, seventy and even a hundred feet there are thousands of old first growth trees just lying laying on the bottom.

Antique pines that are worth more than $100 dollars each and maybe hardwoods that could be worth a lot more.

Duluth Aquarium:

"The Abyss" is the latest exhibit at the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth. It features strange and alien creatures of the deep that dwell miles below the ocean's surface. More than 40 interactive stations, a movie, scale models and even live fish, bring you up close to a world that's stranger than Mars.

You may never get a chance to go that deep underwater but the Aquarium does give visitors a chance to get face to face with some huge examples of our native fish. Gigantic glass tanks provide a fish's eye view of life below the surface of our lakes and rivers.

One of the most popular exhibits is the realistic home of a couple of river otters that seem to delight in all the attention.

You can touch a stingray--it's okay these fish have been de-stung.