Just on the news up here in Minnesota: some police were doing a side scan sonar and found what they believe is a model T in the river by Winona MN. it is in about 20 feet of water covered in mud. Anybody have any scuba gear? They are waiting for the spring - about 6 months from now , to dive down to it.
Back in '09 there was a thread about lining riverbanks with old cars. HRP http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=332041
i have scuba gear , but i'm not going in. i went to college in Winona and trust me when i say that there is a LOT of stuff in the Mississippi. when i was about 14 and in the Boy Scouts i discovered a T sedan and a `34 sedan along the Mississippi in the Lake city area. they were in a area that was not very accessible...steep banks and a lot of brush and trees. i went back about 15 years ago and they are still there...but not much left
When I was in my teens my grandfather used to tell me about a T-era car rolling off a ferry into the Tennessee river. He even knew the man's name that it belonged to though I've forgottn it forty + years later. There's a bridge now just below where the ferry used to cross. I always think about that car down there when crossing it, wondering what make it actually was and what it looks like now.
Several years ago they (the state of MN) replaced the old Winona bridge across the Mississippi river. Someone took pictures of the old bridge before they tore it down. When compared to pictures of the bridge when it was new, they discovered one of the center pilings was gone. They found it in the river, where it landed when it broke away from the bridge. When it fell no one knows. If anyone who used this old bridge remembers how it shook and swayed. l My wife hated crossing it. Just a bit of old info.......
cavman....i'm not aware of them replacing the bridge at Winona , but it's been a few years since i've been there so i could be wrong. i do know they replaced the bridge at Kellogg recently...the old one was a piece of crap. could you be thinking of that one?
Ah yes, many memories of the rivers near the cities. I still recall one night on a small home made pontoon (barrels)boat near the Ford dam when we hit a bloated dead cow and jammed the prop, didn't shear the pin but killed the outboard. Had to take turns holding your breathe going aft and trying to cut it loose.
I find them occasionally while I'm working along the river. Found parts of a TT last winter, and an early Dodge wood spoke rear wheel the year prior.
i got them confused too......it was the one at Wabasha i was thinking about. that old bridge was a piece of crap
This post poses more questions than are answered. What were the police looking for with the sonar equipment? The fact that they plan to dive down to it in the spring leads me to believe they may be looking for a crime scene? Maybe looking for remains?
From what I understand, training lessons for underwater rescue. The use of sonar to locate sunken cars and such. My guess would be that it was either pushed off the bridge above, or it fell off a barge. It was missing the wheels on one side also. I'm sure if it has an ID# or lic. plate, they will do some more digging. No pun intended.
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