A mother was enjoying a day at the beach recently with her 9-year-old son when the two of them unexpectedly stumbled upon a small piece of Midwestern history: a century-old shipwreck.Hannah Damon, director of outreach and administration at Camp Amnicon Adventures and Retreats in South Range, Wisconsin, made the discovery while spending time with her son along the camp's sandy shoreline.The shipwreck is the A.H.Pitz, a steam-powered tugboat built in 1923.
It was abandoned in 1951.ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER UNEXPECTED TWIST IN SHIPWRECK MYSTERY AFTER CLUES DON'T ADD UPAlthough Damon had known about the sunken vessel for years, she had never actually seen it until unusually clear water gave her and her son a rare glimpse of its remains."We started seeing beams and cables and this massive pipe, and it was like, wait a minute, this is a shipwreck, this is a shipwreck," Damon told Fox News Digital on Thursday.Hannah Damon, pictured at right, spotted the historic shipwreck while exploring a half-mile stretch of sandy shoreline at Camp Amnicon in South Range, Wisconsin.(Camp Amnicon)Thrilled by the unexpected sighting, Damon rushed to grab her camera. "I ran back to shore and I got my camera, and I was like, OK, you are not allowed to splash me, this is a really exciting discovery," Damon recalled telling her son.UNDERWATER ROBOTICS EXPERT REVEALS 'SHIPWRECK CITY' HIDING BENEATH MAJOR URBAN LAKEVideo taken by Damon shows the remains of the tugboat beneath clear water, with weathered wooden beams and other debris visible along the lakebed.Damon described the water as "crystal clear" and glassy, an unusual sight along that stretch of Lake Superior.A rare stretch of clear water revealed the remains of a nearly 70-foot-long tugboat that had been submerged in Lake Superior for decades.
(Camp Amnicon)The area sits within the Lake Superior clay plain, where the surrounding soil is largely composed of clay, which can make the water murky and obscure objects beneath the surface.Damon...