1880 shipwreck is discovered by accident in Wisconsin river

A survey of a Wisconsin river led to the accidental discovery of a shipwreck that sank in the area over a century ago. 

The Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Preservation Program and the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association were conducting a high-resolution sonar survey earlier this year of the Fox River to map “potential cultural sites” in a 2.5-mile stretch of the waterway, the historical society said on social media. Those sites included the wreck of a steamer that sank in 1870 and the identified wreck of a ship that had been surveyed in 2016.  

Using a sonar system that creates a 3D rendering of the river bottom, the researchers were able to map the entire section of the river in high resolution, the archaeology association said. The stretch that the team mapped has “a significant amount” of debris, the researchers said, including large trees, rocks and remnants of lumber rafts and collapsed bridges. But amid the debris, they were surprised to see the remains of what appeared to be a different ship. 

“That’s the excitement of archaeology, sometimes we find something new that we were not looking for!” the Wisconsin Historical Society said. 

The scan revealed a partially buried ship’s hull about 90 feet long and 23 feet wide. The wreck is likely that of the L.W. Crane, the Wisconsin Historical Society said. The ship is of a different size than the 1870 wreck the team was initially looking for. 

The L.W. Crane was a wooden paddle wheel steamer ship built in Berlin, Wisconsin, in 1865, the historical society said. It was used to transport passengers and freight between Green Bay and Oconto. In 1880, the ship caught fire, burned to the waterline and sank in Oshkosh. The site where it sank is directly across the river from where the wreck was found.

The historical society did not say how the ship caught fire, or if anyone was aboard the vessel at the time. 

Further investigations at the waterway are ongoing, the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association said, but are hindered by the debris at the bottom of the river. The researchers are working to find more information about the steamer that sank in 1870, as well as the L.W. Crane and other wrecks in the area.