The Great Lakes hold more than just fresh water; they guard a trove of oddities that would make any treasure hunter’s heart race. Below we explore 10 weird things that rest in the murky depths, each with its own eerie backstory and surprising details.
10 Weird Things You Can Find Below the Surface
10 A 1910 Locomotive Steam Engine
During the summer of 1910, a sudden rockslide sent Canadian Pacific Railroad locomotive number 694 careening off the sheer cliffs that line Lake Superior near Marathon, Ontario. The catastrophic event claimed three lives as the massive engine, accompanied by several boxcars and a tender, plunged into the icy waters and settled at a depth of roughly 18.3 metres (about 60 feet).
For more than a century the wreck lay undisturbed, becoming the Great Lakes’ sole known locomotive grave. It wasn’t until 2016 that intrepid ship‑wreck hunters finally located the rust‑encrusted relic, confirming its status as a unique underwater artifact.
9 The Largest Unmodified Collection of Nash Automobiles in the World
Why call them “unmodified”? Because they rest nearly 500 feet beneath Lake Michigan’s surface, making any aftermarket upgrades virtually impossible. On October 31, 1929, the freighter SS Senator departed Milwaukee for Detroit carrying 268 brand‑new Nash automobiles, valued at $251,000—a sum that would exceed $3.8 million today.
In a fog‑shrouded mishap, another vessel slammed into the Senator, sending it to the lake floor in just eight minutes. The wreck now lies at a depth of 131 metres (430 feet), where seven of the 28 crew members perished in the frigid water.
Discovered in 2005 via side‑scan sonar, investigators noted that the cars originally lashed to deck were twisted on their sides, while the vehicles stored inside remained pristine. Although records don’t confirm whether the cargo comprised 1929 or 1930 models, the site is widely accepted as the world’s largest cache of untouched Nash cars. In 2016 the wreckage earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places.
8 Michigan’s Very Own Stonehenge
While mapping shipwrecks in 2007, a team of underwater archaeologists detected a circular arrangement of stones lying 40 feet below Lake Michigan’s surface. Media outlets quickly christened the formation a “miniature Stonehenge,” noting the stones stand roughly 1.25 metres (four feet) tall—shorter than the famed British monument but equally enigmatic.
Researchers suspect the stones were arranged by Indigenous peoples during the last Ice Age, when the lakebed was exposed. One of the monoliths bears what appears to be a mastodon hieroglyph, hinting at a connection to the massive, now‑extinct creature that roamed the region ten thousand years ago.
At present, the purpose of the stone circle remains a mystery. A comparable formation on Beaver Island, situated on dry land, suggests the lake‑bed arrangement was intentional rather than accidental, offering a tantalising clue to ancient ceremonial practices.
7 An Ancient Hunting Camp
Sonar surveys of Lake Huron uncovered a deliberate arrangement of stones perched on the Alpena‑Amberley Ridge, a submerged spine extending from northeast Michigan into southern Ontario. Positioned at about 36.5 metres (120 feet) deep, the site dates back roughly 9,000 years, a time when lake levels were some 76.2 metres (250 feet) lower.
Scientists believe the ridge, flanked by water on both sides, gave ancient hunters a strategic advantage for trapping migrating caribou. Remote‑operated vehicles revealed two parallel stone lines that converged, forming a dead‑end that could have funneled the herd. Additional V‑shaped stones scattered along the path likely served as blinds for ambushes.
Artifacts recovered from the vicinity suggest that Indigenous peoples used the site to sharpen and repair hunting implements, underscoring the ridge’s role as a sophisticated, prehistoric hunting complex.
6 Rare World War II Fighter Planes
The Douglas Dauntless, a robust WWII fighter, earned a reputation for withstanding a barrage of 200 bullets and still returning its pilot safely home. Out of the roughly 6,000 built between 1939 and 1944, only 14 survive today.
Surprisingly, about 75 of these aircraft now rest on Lake Michigan’s bottom. During the war, the United States Navy deemed the lake far enough inland to serve as a safe training arena. Starting in 1942, pilots practiced carrier landings on the USS Wolverine—an auxiliary carrier merely 167 metres (550 feet) long, shorter than a typical fleet carrier.
The program produced 35,000 pilots and over 120,000 successful landings, but it also recorded 128 losses and more than 200 accidents. Most mishaps resulted in minor injuries, and only planes that sank in shallow water were left unrecovered. Recovery efforts began in May 2004, and today several of the surviving Dauntless aircraft are displayed as part of the lake’s wartime heritage.
5 A World War I German U‑Boat
In 1921, the U.S. Navy gunboat USS Wilmette fired a barrage of eighteen 4‑inch shells at the German submarine UC‑97, striking it thirteen times and sinking the vessel in roughly 200 feet of water.
The presence of a German U‑boat in Lake Michigan raises eyebrows. After WWI, the British seized 176 German U‑boats and allocated a handful to Allied navies for technological study. The United States received six, including the UC‑97, which toured various ports as a public exhibit, allowing citizens to glimpse the war’s underwater menace.
Following its exhibition tour, the submarine was towed to Lake Michigan and used as a target by the USS Wilmette, complying with the Treaty of Versailles’ requirement to dispose of the vessel. Though attempts to locate the wreck began in the 1960s, it wasn’t rediscovered until 1992, providing a tangible link to early‑20th‑century naval history.
4 An 11‑Foot Marble Crucifix
Unlike most items on this list, the towering marble crucifix was deliberately placed in Lake Michigan, about 244 metres (800 feet) off Petoskey’s shoreline. Commissioned in the 1950s by a Michigan couple as a grave marker, the Italian‑crafted statue portrays a life‑size Jesus (1.67 metres tall) atop an 11‑foot‑high cross.
During shipment, the monument suffered a crack, prompting the original owners to reject it. An insurance auction later placed it in the hands of the Wyandotte Diving Club, which installed the crucifix near a diver’s memorial site, positioning it roughly 365 metres (1,200 feet) offshore for underwater visitors.
In the early 1980s, the Michigan Skindiving Council salvaged and restored the statue, moving it closer to shore and adding a sturdier base. The Little Traverse Bay Dive Club’s president later suggested a winter‑time viewing, installing underwater lighting so divers could admire the crucifix through a hole in the ice at a depth of about 6.5 metres (21 feet).
3 Old Whitey, the Preserved Corpse of the USS Kamloops
The Great Lakes’ near‑constant temperature of roughly 4 °C (40 °F) creates an environment that preserves sunken artifacts in remarkable condition. When the cargo vessel USS Kamloops sank in Lake Superior in December 1927, it lay hidden for half a century before divers rediscovered it.
Inside the wreck, researchers found candy still sealed in its original Lifesavers packaging, shoes, furniture, and even operational faucets—all astonishingly intact. Perhaps most haunting is the discovery of a crew member’s body in the engine room. In the cold, post‑mortem process, the corpse took on a white, waxy appearance, earning the nickname “Whitey.” He now rests in his watery grave, a silent guardian of the ship’s history.
Whitey’s preservation highlights the broader practice of treating shipwrecks as controlled diving sites, respecting the final resting places of those who perished and ensuring families’ wishes are honored.
2 A Seven‑Room, Fully Furnished Vacation House
In the winter of 1977, a four‑mile ice road formed between Bayside, Wisconsin, and Madeline Island on Lake Superior, prompting a daring plan to transport a fully furnished, seven‑room vacation home across the frozen expanse.
Lyle Rhine of Dale Movers convinced authorities the ice was thick enough, and on March 2 the convoy set out. The house made good progress for the first three miles, but at the three‑mile mark the trailer’s tires broke through the fragile ice. Both the truck and the house plunged into roughly 21 metres (70 feet) of water.
Summer brought a Coast Guard mandate to salvage the wreck. While the truck was raised, attempts to hoist the house proved futile; cables snapped, the structure shattered, and its remains still litter the lake floor, a ghostly reminder of an ambitious but ill‑fated relocation.
1 Canadian Model Airplanes
These weren’t ordinary hobby‑scale models; they were 1/8‑scale test pieces for the Avro Arrow, a cutting‑edge supersonic interceptor developed by Avro Canada for the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s.
The models were launched over Lake Ontario to evaluate the aircraft’s revolutionary delta‑wing design, verifying performance at Mach 1 and Mach 2. The Arrow represented Canada’s answer to Soviet long‑range bombers capable of crossing the Arctic to strike North America.
In 1959, the Canadian Prime Minister abruptly cancelled the program. Six completed Arrows were scrapped, and nine of the test models vanished—rumoured to have been destroyed to prevent Soviet espionage. Four of those nine have since been recovered from Lake Ontario’s sandy bottom and are undergoing restoration by the Canadian Conservation Institute.