Baton Rouge, Oct. 18 (BUS): A shipwreck has appeared along the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, with water levels dropping dramatically, threatening record levels in some areas.
Archaeologists discovered the ship, which archaeologists believe was a ferry that sank in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, by a Baton Rouge resident earlier this month. The discovery is the latest on the surface due to receding water due to drought, according to the Associated Press.
During the summer, the retreating waters of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area have revealed numerous skeletal remains, countless dried fish, a forgotten boat cemetery, and even a sunken WWII-era vehicle that once surveyed the lake.
“Eventually the river will come back and (the ship) will be back underwater,” said Louisiana State archaeologist Chip McGimsey, who has been surveying the wreck for the past two weeks.
McGimsey thinks the ship may have been the Brookhill Ferry, which likely ferried people and horse-drawn carriages from one side of the river to the other before major bridges ran across the mighty Mississippi. Newspaper archives indicate that the ship sank in 1915 during a severe storm.
But this isn’t the first time that low water levels have revealed the ship. McGimsey said small parts of the ship were uncovered in the 1990s.
“At the time, the ship was completely full of mud and there was mud all around it so only the tip tops were visible from the sides, so (the archaeologists) didn’t see much. They had to move a lot of dirt just to get in some narrow windows to see the parts and cutting,” McGimsey said.
Today, a third of the boat, which is 95 feet (29 meters) long, can be seen on the muddy coast near downtown Baton Rouge.
McGimsey expects more discoveries as water levels continue to drop, having already received calls about two possible shipwrecks.
But the unusually low water level in the lower Mississippi River, where rainfall has been below normal since late August, also created havoc that caused boats to get stuck in mud and sand, leading to restrictions on waterways by the Coast Guard and disrupting the river . Travel for shippers, recreational boaters and cruise line passengers.
In Baton Rouge, the river is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep, according to the National Weather Service, its lowest level since 2012.
Water levels are expected to drop further in the coming weeks, dampening economic activity in the region and potentially threatening jobs.
FAE