Smith Mountain Lake - Underwater town - Fact or Fiction?

[JDA]

Hi everyone,
I was referred to this site by a Smith Mountain Lake resident who saw a news clip on WSET 13 News in regard to a submerged bridge. I found the old Hales Ford Bridge with a new type of SONAR I was trying out.

I have used the same technology recently in the vicinity of Vista Point and found what I believe to be bridge abutments or similar plus a lot of other "weird" looking structures.

I have other screen captures of the bridge and a few of Vista Point area. I would be happy to post or share GPS co ordinance and a few screen shots if you like.

BTW, I don't dive. I'm a fisherman.

 

[Don Burke]

Hi everyone,
I was referred to this site by a Smith Mountain Lake resident who saw a news clip on WSET 13 News in regard to a submerged bridge. I found the old Hales Ford Bridge with a new type of SONAR I was trying out.

I have used the same technology recently in the vicinity of Vista Point and found what I believe to be bridge abutments or similar plus a lot of other "weird" looking structures.

I have other screen captures of the bridge and a few of Vista Point area. I would be happy to post or share GPS co ordinance and a few screen shots if you like.

BTW, I don't dive. I'm a fisherman.

That sounds great.

You can post them here or send them to me donburke56@hotmail.com

 

[telemonster]

Hi everyone,
I found the old Hales Ford Bridge with a new type of SONAR I was trying out.

I have used the same technology recently in the vicinity of Vista Point and found what I believe to be bridge abutments or similar plus a lot of other "weird" looking structures.

I have other screen captures of the bridge and a few of Vista Point area. I would be happy to post or share GPS co ordinance and a few screen shots if you like.

BTW, I don't dive. I'm a fisherman.

It'd be neat to see this! I presume you were using a side-scan sonar setup?

 

[JDA]

I emailed the screen captures and links to Don, maybe he will post them? I can't list url's, etc until I've made 5 posts.
Yes, I was using Lowrance Structure Scan with side and down scan.

 

[JDA]

Post number 3

 

[JDA]

Post number 4

 

[JDA]

Post number 5

 

[JDA]

Here are a couple screen captures of the submerged Hales Ford bridge I found.
Down scan

Left side scan

Media Old Hales Ford Bridge Mystery Put to Rest|ABC 13

Underwater discovery - Smith Mountain Lake

These came from Vista Point area

 

[jeffloughridge]

This is so cool. Congratulations on the find! I think Lowrance better ramp up production beyond what their market analysis said.

I suspect this will become standard issue to police S&R teams and forensic divers.

If Mel Fisher had one of these!

 

[H3LlIoN]

Dead thread bump!

I'm headed to SML in May (13-16) and will be packing all of my gear. Any one done anything with this since the last post? Coords on that bridge scan? I don't have a boat ATM, working on that hopefully in the meantime.

Also, any one know of a filling station within range? My compressor setup is not yet mobile.