00:02A piece of Great Lakes history resurfaces.
00:05A shipwreck team has announced the discovery of the Lac LaBelle,
00:09a luxury steamer that sank in Lake Michigan more than 150 years ago.
00:14Listen to this.
00:15The 217-foot passenger steamer ran between Cleveland and Lake Superior in the mid to late 1800s.
00:23In October of 1872, the steamer with 53 passengers on board set out from Milwaukee
00:29then sprang a leak.
00:31The captain tried to turn back, but rough weather and heavy waves overtook the vessel.
00:36The Lac LaBelle sank.
00:38Eight people died after escaping into a lifeboat.
00:42Fast forward to 2022.
00:44Shipwreck hunter Paul Ehren says a commercial fisherman
00:48tipped him off after snagging something on the lake floor that didn't belong.
00:53Ehren and his team followed the lead
00:55and found the wreck about 20 miles offshore between Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin.
01:01The upper cabin is gone, but the hull remains largely intact, with much of the interior preserved.
01:08The discovery was kept quiet until a dive team could create a 3D model of the site, completed last summer.
01:15And here's the stunning part.
01:16The University of Wisconsin Water Library estimates there may be between 6,000 and 10,000 undiscovered shipwrecks across the
01:27Great Lakes.
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