Fisherman discovers the historic shipwreck in the fog of Lake Michigan: "It's sitting there for more than 100 years"

State officials announced Friday that Wisconsin anglers caught fishing in fog this week found the wreckage of an abandoned tugboat flooded in Lake Michigan waters.

Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society, said the association confirmed that Christopher Thuss had discovered the remains of JC Ames. Tuss fished in Manitowoc, Michigan, and on Tuesday he noticed nine-foot-high water remains of wildlife.

According to the book "Green Bay Studios: NAU Tug Line", the Rand and Burger Shipbuilding Company of Manitowoc built JC Ames in 1881 to help move wood. The tug is one of the largest and most powerful tugs on the Great Lakes, with a 670-horsepower engine.

The tug that stretches out from the Great Lakes
On Thursday, May 15, 2025, photos provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society Tim Pranke, a volunteer diver of the Wisconsin Historical Society, approached the wreckage of the JC Ames Tugboat that was swept away in 1923 and rediscovered Michigan Shoreline in Manitowleance on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. Tamara Thomson/AP

In addition to moving wood, tugs offer a variety of uses, including transporting rail cars. Thomson said it ended up in disrepair and was deprived in 1923, when practices outweighed their practicality.

Thomson said the ship had been buried on the beach at the bottom of the lake for decades, before the storm this winter apparently revealed the ship. The lack of Quagga mussels on board showed that it was not exposed until recently, she said.

Historians are racing Find the wreck and Down plane In the Great Lakes, before the Quagga mussels destroyed them. Quagga has become the main invasive species Over the past 30 years, in the Lower Lakes, self-fixed to wooden wrecks and sunken aircraft, the delamination was so thick that it eventually crushed the wreckage.

"These discoveries are always so exciting because it can bring a lost history to the surface. It sat there for more than a hundred years and then returned to our radar completely by chance," Thomson said in a statement. "We are grateful that Chris Thuss noticed the wreckage and reported it, so we can share this story with the Wisconsin community where this history belongs."

In September, maritime historians Brendon Baillod and Bob Jaeck announced that they had discovered The wreckage of John EvansonIn June 1895, the trailer tug was lost when the cargo ship entered the Sturgeon Bay Boat Canal in Lake Michigan. Two historians also found a large seat Margaret A. Muir in June 2024.

In March 2024, the wreckage of a Milwaukee ship sank after colliding with another ship in 1886 Found 360 feet below the water in Lake Michigan.

This discovery comes months after a man and his daughter The remains of the ship were found In 1871, Milwaukee sank Lake Michigan, which is located from Milwaukee.

Experts estimate that more than 6,000 ships have landed in the Great Lakes since the late 1600s.