Here is an interesting tid bit from North Idaho

[Gary D.]

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/idaho-news-story.asp?date=042204&ID=s1511965&cat=section.idaho

Gary D.

 

[H2Andy]

you have to register to read it. can you cut and paste?

 

[Gary D.]

you have to register to read it. can you cut and paste?

Here ya go, I think.

Gary D.


Thursday, April 22, 2004

Idaho

Divers say sunken log may be ancient canoe
Possible dugout `looks like Barney Rubble's car with no wheels'


Marianne Love
Correspondent

SANDPOINT _ Sandpoint scuba divers Mark Jones and Sid Redfield may never forget this year's annual New Year's day plunge into the cold waters of Lake Pend Oreille.

On Jan. 1, the two found what may be a historic dugout canoe, one carved from a log approximately 7 feet long.

"It looks like Barney Rubble's car with no wheels," says Jones, who first spotted it while having ear problems during his dive.

On his way up, he reached out to steady himself. "I coul
dn't believe what I was looking at," he recalled. "Sid took a couple of pictures and then the silt encompassed the log, distorting the view."

After telling their wives, the two wasted no time getting their pictures processed and showed them to amateur historian Gary Weisz. He passed the word to local archaeologist Bob Betts, who contacted Mary Anne Davis, associate state archaeologist for the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office in Boise.

The two divers have revisited the site at least 16 times to take more pictures and video for local and state historic officials, who met in March to decide what to do next about the find.

"This could be Native American or Euro-American," said Davis, who arranged a press conference on the find Wednesday at the Bonner County Heritage Museum. "This is the only one I'm aware of being found in this area. It had enough promise to put together a plan, to work with the community and to do an assessment."

The discovery prompted such intense interest from a group of historians and archaeologists that two National Park Service divers are spending this week with Jones and Redfield collecting data in an undisclosed location on the lake. The Idaho Heritage Trust funded the divers' trip from Santa Fe, N.M.

Within a few weeks, they hope to determine the crude craft's possible age, the tree species used for its construction and the age of the tree.

"We aren't talking locations until it's done," Davis said. "It's very vulnerable right now, and we don't want it disturbed."

Today divers Matt Russell and Dave Conlin from the Submerge Resource Division of the Park Service will take photographs and videos of the "log," located at a depth of 40 feet on a side slope. Russell, an underwater archaeologist, served as the archaeology field coordinator during the recovery of the H.L. Hunley Confederate submarine off the coast of South Carolina in 2000. Eight sailors who died aboard the sub when it rammed the Union Housatonic in 1864 were buried in Charleston, S.C., last Saturday.

For the past two days, Russell, Conlin and the Sandpoint divers have been working in 41-degree waters for 37- to 47-minute stretches. While submerged, they've assembled scale drawings, measured the shape of the log and noted its characteristics, which include a large crack at one end. Weisz speculates that it was probably damaged on shore, abandoned and then washed away underwater during a storm.

Data collected during this week's dives will be sent to labs Friday. Russell said testing of samples probably will take a few weeks.

Davis said this stage is called the "identification stage." Then, the state and local historical groups will meet again to determine whether to recover the possible artifact. They also will compare the findings with canoes in other museums to determine its use.

The small size of the possible dugout intrigues the historians.

"It could have been used in Pack River (a Lake Pend Oreille tributary)," says Davis. "Or maybe it was used for fishing or in the marshes for gathering tule." Davis stresses that all parties are still just speculating as to the authenticity and historic significance of the find.

"Regardless, I want to put a video together for the schools to show them about underwater archaeology," Davis said.

Russell concurred, suggesting that both Jones and Redfield could serve as the poster boys for this field of historic discovery.

"It's important that the kids know this can happen in their own back yard," he said.



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[ABQdiver]

That is sooo cool! It just goes to show you that if you keep your eyes open you might just find or see some very interesting things.

 

[H2Andy]

wow.. cool

 

[Gary D.]

Our lakes are full of antiquities. Everything from arrow heads to slot machines. Civil war era weapons to steam ships and silver coins. Lots of cool diving. I have even found some real Tiffany Lamps and a buddy of mine found a case of old crank telephones.

Gary D.