Telemonster, I also thought it would be cool to do sidescan (not in my budget...but cool). I think with the timber that was piled in the middle and the collapsed nature of the town, you might not be able to pick out anything decisive. Worth a try if you have the gear though...how cool would that be! A church steeple would certainly show up well and let you know where to look. The graveyard should be easy to pick out on sidescan too, if it's really intact.
I was joking about keeping it a secret....here is a link to where I saw divers: They were in the middle of this map, kind of between the two boats you see here.
mitchells marina, moneta, va - Google Maps
Don't mount an expedition based on that, it was 20 + years ago. My memory is vague, but I remember it because we were in that area a lot and stayed a few houses down in the cove by Mitchell's. It made an impression on me. One theory was they were looking for evidence from a crime....might have been true...it probably wasn't hidden treasure and they never brought up a sunken boat, so I'll go with evidence or a legitimate dive site. I wanted to go see what they were doing but we knew not to get close by water. I hoped to catch them at the marina and ask what they were up to, but they didn't put in at Mitchell's. They were there a few times that I remember, but I don't recall ever seeing divers anywhere else during my years growing up and spending summers there.
There should be some local knowledge out there somewhere....If I remember who I talked to about diving there, I'll track them down and get more info. I hate forgetting stuff like this, obviously it's someone I know and I don't know that many divers. I heard stories from this person about hunting for fishing lures in the coves upstream from Mitchell's and a scary one about getting hung up in some barbed wire (while collecting lures). He said the town was too dangerous and nobody dives it anymore. I've been very interested in what the underwater town really consists of, but like I said I dismissed it as too dangerous for me and less than a glamorous dive for the amount of danger, so I purged some of what I had learned.
Ice9, what tall tales have you heard? Did you hear stories of the huge catfish near the dam? Legend had it that a diver was doing an inspection on the dam and was "approached" by a catfish his size. Poop in the wetsuit was part of that tale too, I think..but only after the teller had a few beers. They say he came up quick and said he would never get in that water again. Other than the big catfish and a few engagement rings, I never heard too many stories of what's down there. An engament ring would be cool to find, but I don't care if I ever come face to face with a 5 foot catfish.....especially in low viz...you'd have to be pretty close to figure out what it was...too close.
~Al
PS: If anyone goes, let us know what it's like and what you find!
Or at least some remnant of the town...
