MIssissippi River sunken boat
I'm new to this sport in fact I have very little experience with treasure finding. Last spring (2009)I purchased a diary from a women with an interesting subject about a small boat that sunk in the upper Mississippi river. The most astounding fact is my home is located just a few miles from the site. Now I'm about to make a very long and drawn out story very short, I located the boat and contents which includes just over 4,100 dollars (according to the diary) in gold and silver coins. The boat is very small and in 8.5 feet of river muck... The nice of all this is the water is only 5.7 feet deep as of Aug 22. I've worked at this site for over a year and want to bring up the contents which include an wooded chest with gold and silver coins in fruit jars. My underwater camera isn't that great but I have lot's of pics which include the chest, I pumped up some other interesting items from this wreak which did in fact contain gold and silver coins and broken amber colored fruit jar glass.
Wish me luck because I'm about to attempt to bring up the chest as intact as I can before winter sets in . Robert
Hi Robert: Glad you got the trunk up. I'll bet that river bottom muck doesn't smell like roses. Try to obtain legal advise before you even open the trunk, because if it gets about the boat's name , I'm sure that it was insured therefore it can be claimed by insurance company.
I hope this really turns out to be a finders keepers for you and the crew. Hope that you've had the opportunity to video the recovery. too!
Bobby, continued good luck in your recovery effort. However, I do feel that you should post some pictures since this story first was posted almost a year and a half ago. We're all pulling for you.
Please show us some of the pictures you have.
Would love to see what you find. Thanks for letting us know how its going and good luck.R.BrownMyrtle Beach,SC
Hi Robert,This is Carla Banning, Managing Editor at Lost Treasure. We hope you are taking lots of pictures of your adventure and that you will share your story with our readers when it's all said and done. Feel free to contact me at managingeditor
losttreasure [dot] com or (918) 786-2182. Thanks much, Carla
Hi Robert: That's a very interesting story and adventure. What is the problem with getting it out being so shallow. A project like that in that kind of muck you can't stop until it's done otherwise what work you do is covered again. Can't you post some pictures of this adventure. Good luck on getting the chest out in tact.
As of 11/23/11 Resumed diving with hired help as of 11/01/11, The Mississippi water level is very low at this time and everything has been perfect. If everything goes as planned we should have the chest up before mid Dec ( weather permitting). Water at the site is just under five foot three inches, This has been a very long progress..... not ever did I think something like this would be such a pain. We plan on rising the chest as intact as possible. Later. Robert
What was the name of the ship? Im from Iowa and have heard stories about a boat/ship going down in the river. It is said that it sank down south from Iowa but a old guy I know claims it sank around I-80. I forgot the name of the ship and tried to google everything I could but found nothing.
Well, all operations were set for mid Oct and just when everything was in place ..Wham.. we got hit hard with a flood, over eleven inches in just 24 hours. most all of the drill holes got refilled with mud . We crossed our fingers till about Nov 10th to see if the water on the Mississippi would lower but the fast current forbid drilling. sorry to say but it's all going to have to wait until this coming spring , I just hope we don't get much snow pack which would keep the spring flood waters down somewhat. I guess a few more months won't matter much since this wreak has been in the water since 1936 and it's nice to see that silver and gold keep rising to new highs.
Awesome. Looking forward to seeing them. Good luck.
The boat went down in the summer of 1936 due to fire. The couple worked in LA on casino boats and such. They lost everything when their boat sank, In her memo she stated that the amount was just over 4,100 dollars.. mostly in coin. I hope to get what pics we have posted soon.
Sounds like you found a great real life cache of your own!
What era is the wreck from? Is it pre 20th century? Pre-civil war? Sounds exciting, likey a great find.
If it has a bunch of old morgan silver pieces and gold eagles from pre 20th century it is a [i]great[/i] find and the kind of thing that keeps us treasure hunters looking!
Yes please post what pics you want and good luck raising up her treasure chest before winter! ;)
I'll post some of the pics we took from last spring to present. Don't laugh too hard as we are amatures (at best) at this. Robert
Hey, Good luck Robert. Sounds very exciting. Perhaps you can post some photos of your finds.
Hello to all, sorry this has been so long as we experienced a flood on the Mississippi river from Oct 2011 to early Oct . We more or less thought that removing the chest would have to wait untill the Spring of 2012.. however we got very lucky and began operations on 11/12/11 as the weather was very warm for this time of year. We did get the trunk up and out on 12/05/11 at 6;45 AM, thunk was in very good condition and locked with a latch type lock. The wet weight ( out of water for 6 hours ) was 388 lbs, the actual weight will be lower I'm sure. Tag on the top reads "Chicago trunk works", so far I've not been able to turn the lock.. I bought many types and styles of different keys off the internet.. but this will take time, I'll hire a locksmith if need be. We did manage to pry open a very small opening on the side of this trunk ... seems to be coins in some sort of amber colored glass. I was told to treat the trunk with five different chemicals to prevent decay and to void any it of any air until treatment is finished ( four to six months) This trunk is not a rounded steamer style but has a flat top, looks like leather afixed to it and there were small chunks of mud stuck to one side... turned out to be very old fishing lures lol. There also seems to be old paper or straw packed in this trunk which is nothing surprising but my god the oder of it... damn I have many pics but won't post any at this time as the trunk is still locked, I have to be carefull and get this all legal as possible. I DO NOT have this trunk in my home state WI. After my very small crew and I removed this last Dec... we were nothing short of ecstatic, drank half a case of great wine.. woke up with a huge headack..and it was worth it. Robert B Ps; will have some links to pics when the time is right.
Hello to all, Sorry it's been so long since I've last updated. We managed to remove the chest on Dec 5th 6;45 am 2011, the weather was perfec