Hannah Damon, director of outreach and administration at Camp Amnicon Adventures and Retreats, found the remains of the boat near the mouth of the Amnicon River in Wisconsin after clear conditions and low water levels revealed it, according to PEOPLE . A mother discovered a shipwreck she had heard about for more than a decade while playing with her 9-year-old son near Lake Superior earlier this month.
Her video showed cables and metal beams partly buried in the sand beneath the shallow water. She explained that the boat had reached the end of its working life and was deliberately sunk decades ago. The former camper remembered that the wreck once stood above the water. However, it became more fully submerged a few years later.
It was run aground and set on fire because there was no clear plan for what to do with it, according to her account. Damon said she had heard stories about the shipwreck throughout her 12 years working at the camp but had never seen it herself. Damon identified the boat as the AH Pitz, a steam-powered tugboat built in 1923 and sunk in 1952. The wooden boat was nearly 70 feet long and had a hold depth of more than eight feet, according to Wisconsin Shipwrecks. After her video was shared, a former camper from the camp’s first year in 1951 contacted the team and recalled seeing the boat.
Damon said people in the Amnicon community had known about the shipwreck for a long time, so it was not an entirely discovery.
