Project: Preliminary Inventory of Known and Potential Shipwrecks in Minnesota’s Inland Waterways

In the mid-1990s the Minnesota State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO contracted M-AT to produce a preliminary inventory of known and potential shipwrecks in Minnesota’s inland waterways based on a literature search and field investigation of selected wreck sites. The literature search produced evidence of 110 verified or potential wreck sites. MAT prepared an inventory of these shipwreck sites to provide a basis for submerged cultural resources management within the State’s inland waters. In addition, MAT created an individual file for each of the sites.

Of the 110 potential wrecks, only 12 were verified as having wreckage still in existence. Three of the verified wreck sites were selected for field investigations, based on the site’s diversity by association with historic context and by vessel type. Field investigations were conducted at Burntside Lake on a logging scow, on the upper Mississippi River on the remains of a tramp steamer, and in Lake Minnetonka on a passenger steamer built by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company.

The Minnesota shipwrecks examined by MAT during this investigation were each unusual and important to Minnesota’s history. The Bull-of-the-Woods was a variant type steam scow in which steam hoist machinery was adapted as a power plant to move not only the vessel but logs in Burntside Lake during the colorful Northern Minnesota Lumbering Period. The wreck of the Swan, although in poor condition, represented an example of a tramp streamer that operated on the upper Mississippi River during a time of economic expansion also associated with Minnesota’s Northern Lumbering context. Lastly, the White Bear, plus the other fascinating streetcar boats and excursion boats that are resting on the bottom of Lake Minnetonka, are significant examples of vessels that hallmark the development of Minnesota’s Tourist and Recreation industry and the Urban Centers of Minneapolis and St. Paul.