Under the blue waters of Lake Superior – the largest lake in North America – lays a discovery that shocked divers; a Canadian Pacific Railway steam train. Locomotive No. 694 has been on the bottom of Lake Superior for 106 years, just waiting to be discovered.
The train may have even stayed there for another century had it not been for a group of determined shipwreck hunters, mlive.com reported Wednesday.
A remotely operated vehicle belonging to Tom Crossman of Duluth, Idaho, found the train. “This is the only locomotive that I’m aware of in the Great Lakes,” he said.
The story of how it got there is very dramatic. On June 19, 1910, the train was speeding along when it ran straight into some boulders that had fallen onto the tracks. It derailed after hitting them, skidding across the ground before plunging into the water of Lake Superior.
Three men died on that tragic day. One man died after jumping from the train before it crashed into the rocks while two others were dragged down with the train into their watery graves.
Several cars and the engine itself went into the water, where they would lay for over 100 years.
Crossman and his team weren’t the only ones that tried to find the train, however. Another team located the train cars in 2014, but were unable to find the engine, Mail Online reported.
Crossman became very interested in the story of the lost train. Using GPS co-ordinates that he received from the 2014 explorers, he eventually found the engine in a pile of boulders.
If you are hoping to see the train itself, then you will need to dive down as well; the train is so damaged that it will most likely never be removed from the lake.