Talk about buried treasure.
A Louisiana man made a shocking discovery at the bottom of the Mississippi River due to low water levels caused by drought.
Baton Rouge local Patrick Ford found a 1915 shipwreck on one of his daily walks by the riverfront, he told local news station WBRZ. His discovery comes as concerns about the severe drought are rising.
Low water levels in the Mississippi River, which flows from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, have caused supply chain issues, with cruise ships being forced to turn around mid-voyage and barges running aground, according to CNN.
Ford told the outlet he had noticed the water level dropping for several weeks, but nothing prepared him for the discovery of a lifetime.
“This past Sunday I was out here looking and realized the rest of the shore had washed away and there was an entire ship there,” he told WBRZ. “I immediately texted friends and was like, ‘Holy moly, I think I found a ship, a sunken ship!'”
Ford reached out to Chip McGimsey, Lousiana’s state archaeologist and director of its division of archaeology, who said the state was already aware of the hidden treasure.
The ship is believed to be the Brookhill, which was built in Indiana in 1896 and used for trading along with its sister ship the Istrouma, McGimsey told the outlet. The ships both sank after a major storm in 1915, and the Brookhill wasn’t seen again until it was exposed and discovered in 1992.
“At that time, it was not nearly as exposed as it is now,” McGimsey recalled of the Brookhill’s initial discovery. Ninety percent of the ship’s remaining hull is now exposed as a result of the shrinking water levels.
According to McGimsey, the Brookhill is an extremely rare style of boat, and archaeologists will now be able to study the vessel more carefully than they have before.
