Archaeologists Accidentally Discover 1880s Shipwreck in Wisconsin River

Archaeologists from the Wisconsin Historical Society's Maritime Preservation Program and the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association made an accidental discovery.

The discovery was made while the team was conducting a ‘high-resolution sonar survey.’ The team was mapping out a 2.5-mile-long area of the Fox River in Oshkosh, WI, as stated on a Facebook post made by the Wisconsin Historical Society on July 3.

According to the Wisconsin Underwater Archeological Association (WUAA), this site was chosen because of earlier small area surveys and because of a report of an antique anchor recovered by a magnet fisherman.

The area surveyed was a 2.5-mile stretch of the Fox River, “between the Hwy 21 Bascule Bridge at Sawyer Creek and the railroad bridge where the Fox empties into Lake Winnebago,” according to the WUAA.

Archaeologists originally set out to “map sites of a steamer that sank in 1870 and to relocate a wreck that was surveyed in 2016," the historical society reported. 

Although they didn’t find the wrecks they were looking for the Wisconsin Historical Society said, "That's the excitement of archaeology, sometimes we find something new that we were not looking for!"

The 145-year-old wreck is most likely that of the L.W. Crane, as reported by Fox 11 News. The ship was found in 25-30 feet of water.

Wisconsin Shipwrecks reports that the L.W. Crane was a steam paddle ship, about 100 feet in length. It was originally built in Berlin, WI, in 1865. It was used primarily to ferry passengers and freight between Green Bay and Oconto.

Later in 1875, the L.W. Crane was used for clearing the Wisconsin River, as records from Wisconsin Shipwrecks show. The vessel would work ahead of construction crews, “felling the leaning timber and pulling snags along the partially improved channel.”

Records show that the L.W. Crane made its final voyage in 1880. The vessel was on the Fox River at the slip of the St. Paul Railroad when it caught fire and burned to the waterline.

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source https://www.mensjournal.com/news/archaeologists-accidentally-discover-1880s-shipwreck-in-wisconsin-river