I found my own un-touched wreck!

[DetectorGuy]

I just got back from a four day camping trip at Pike Lake near Hermantown MN. I snuck 6 tanks and my gear in the truck under the camping gear. I got in 5 dives and the visibility was only 5'. The first dive was un eventful, 10 golf balls and a rear axle. The second dive I found 3 anchors, and a "Scooby Doo" kids fishing rod. The third dive I found a Stainless steel ice dipper and a pair of snow skis. The skis were kinda old but they were not a matching pair. One was blue and one was gray and one was 5" shorter than the other. I searched the area around these pretty good to make sure the skier wasn't down there with them.

The fourth dive was the cool one. I was watching the depth finder on my boat to find any ledges and I saw a 2' high solid mass on the bottom in 18' of water. I was very interested in this and I spun around with the boat over the spot again. As soon as I saw the image, I dropped the anchor. I donned my gear and dropped down the anchor line. I swam in concentric circles around the anchor and I saw an old wooden boat (maybe 100 years old) sitting upright on the bottom about 10' from my anchor. It was about 14' long by 3 1/2' wide. The wood ribs on the inside looked old but still in pretty good shape. The only thing wrong with the boat was one of the benches was broke and where the ribs met the gunnel they were rotted off. Very photogenic boat. I looked the boat over very good and searched a 30' radius around the boat. The two oars were still in the boat. I attached a dog bone buoy to the oars to mark the spot so I could get back to it after I went to shore and get my camera.

The fifth dive was to video and photograph the boat. I took a video from the bow, down the outside to the stern and then on the inside back to the bow and several photos. (I will post a link to the video and photos later). I left the boat with the dog bone buoy still attached to the oars, and swam West to kill my tank. About 70 yards away I found part of an old log building. The logs were about 10" diameter and had been notched at the ends. The size of this rectangle structure was about 6' wide by 8' long by 3 logs high. This could have been just a northwoods fishing crib that was made just to create structure for fish, or it may have been part of a small log shed that was drug out on the ice and eventually fell in. It was interesting too. (I will post a link to that video later too.)

I had more tanks with, but I was running out of energy, and the boat traffic was picking up too.

[Shooter]

Way cool!  8)  Congrats on the find! Seems there have been alot of discoveries lately  Looking forward to the pics & video

[bowman12]

Very cool! The more I dive, the more I find myself looking for treasure. I found two anchors this weekend, one was homemade, but the other was a navy type that appears to be pretty old.

[DetectorGuy]

Here is a link to the video I took. The first part is of the old wood boat. Then there is some stills of the boat. Then there are some stills of the log structure, and then a video of the log structure. It is 6 minutes long so you might need to fast forward through the boring parts.

[Shooter]

Nice video. Any idea how old the boat was? Did you check for registration? I bet there are ice fishing houses on top of those in the winter!

[Adam6521]

Sweet!  Tell us about the camera you used.  I'm curious!

[DetectorGuy]

I used a sealife Reefmaster Mini. I think its 6 megapixel and I did not use the external flash but I did use the wide angle lens. Infact the built in flash is mounted above the lens (like most cameras are) and on this dive I noticed that because there were so many particles in the water, that the built in flash was just lighting up the top of the viewing area. Since the boat was in shallow water, the sun was lighting up the top of the viewing area too. I turned the camera upside down and took the balance of the photos this way and it helped to lighten up the shadows more and left the natural light from the sun on top. The video was taken with no external light. This camera will take 60 minutes of this poor quality video with a 2 GB card in it. The camera with the wide angle lens was only about $300 and there is no case to buy as the actual camera case is rated for 200'. I wish I would have held out for a better one though.

[MERCDIVER]

very good find. it looks like you are getting a fair amount of bottom time. i'm a little jelouse. we still need to get some ice diving time in together. keep up the good videos.  merc diver