Couple to scour Minnesota River for steamboat wrecks
- On 16/11/2011
- In Treasure Hunting / Recoveries
- 0 comments
By Tim Krohn - Mankato Free Press
Husband and wife team Ann Merriman and Chris Olson are shipwreck hunters, using high-tech gear and historic records to scour Lake Superior, Lake Minnetonka and other big bodies of water for wrecks.
Next summer they will begin surveying what may seem a less likely maritime route — the Minnesota River.
“On the Minnesota, there were many reports of sunk or snagged (steamboats), five or six at least,” Merriman said. “How much is left of them, no one knows.”
The steamboats that plied the Minnesota River from 1823 to near the turn of the century were substantial crafts — many 125 feet long, 25 feet wide, two stories high and carrying up to 160 tons of cargo and people.
Merriman and her husband founded the nonprofit Maritime Heritage Minnesota (maritimeheritagemn.org) in 2005 to document and preserve the state’s maritime history.
They recently received a grant from the state’s Legacy Fund to conduct sonar imaging of the Minnesota River from St. Paul to Henderson.
A second round of funding would allow them to map from Henderson to past Mankato — which was generally as far as most steamboats could venture.
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