Mom spots shipwreck hiding beneath lake after years of beach visits: ‘Wait a minute’

Hannah Damon and her nine-year-old son spotted the submerged remains of a century-old tugboat while visiting a beach on Lake Superior in Wisconsin. Unusually clear, calm water revealed the wreck, which Damon had known about for years but had never seen; the discovery has brought local attention to a piece of the area’s maritime history.

The vessel, the A.H. Pitz, was a nearly 70-foot steam-powered tug built in 1923 for the McMullen and Pitz Construction Company. It changed hands several times before being abandoned at the mouth of the Amnicon River in 1951, when it may have been sunk to stabilise a sandbar. The clay-rich shoreline usually makes the water murky, so the wreck is rarely visible; Damon’s footage prompted people to share memories of seeing it over the decades.