Watch now: A 1,200-year-old dugout canoe is raised from Lake Mendota [View all]
Tamara Thomsen and Mallory Dragt thought they would take a spin under Lake Mendota on a couple of underwater scooters, motorized gadgets that scuba divers use to propel themselves through the water.
It was a beautiful Saturday morning in June, and the duo, who work at Diversions Scuba, debated whether they had just seen a log sticking out of the bottom of the 9,781-acre lake or something extremely rare.
The discovery, on a slope in 27 feet of water near Shorewood Hills, has turned out to be about as historic as it gets.
After a bit of investigation, it turns out that Thomsen, who is also a maritime archaeologist for the Wisconsin Historical Society, was right in judging that it was more than just a log: It was a dugout canoe. A few weeks later, carbon-14 dating showed that the 15-foot-long vessel was an estimated 1,200 years old, the oldest intact boat ever found in Wisconsin waters.
https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/watch-now-a-1-200-year-old-dugout-canoe-is-raised-from-lake-mendota/article_c9164032-3ba1-5e8c-9151-97e793920db5.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1
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In my home town! Video at the site!!!! How cool is this?
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