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DetectorGuy · (This post was last modified: 08-25-2008, 08:39 AM by DetectorGuy.)

I just got back from camping at a friends cabin on Pike lake near Hermantown, MN. I got three dives in and found a bunch of stuff. Some of it was interesting and some of it was not so much. I found four anchors, two ice dippers, a grub hoe head (kinda like a pick axe with root cutting blades), a bottle from "Duluth Bottling Co", a cell phone, an old leg bone, and my Aqualung Blades Two fin that fell off the back of my boat on July 5th. The visibility was about 4 feet and the temperature was about 68 degrees. The fin was just about where I thought it fell in at about 24 feet of water. I saw the bone sitting on a 4' by 8' freshwater spring in about 16' of water. the other stuff was scattered around in various spots right around 20' of water.

Here is a picture of the stuff I found with my new inflatable in the background.

DetectorGuy · 08-24-2008, 07:02 PM,

Here is a photo of the bone. I recognized it as a femur right away and thought that a cow or horse must have wandered out on the ice and that it fell in where the freshwater spring made the ice thin. Now that I measure it and hold it up to my own femur I am sure that it is too small for a cow or a horse.

Grumpie, Could I drop this bone off with you, and you could have the Ramsey County boys look at it and see if it looks human to them?

DetectorGuy · (This post was last modified: 08-24-2008, 08:19 PM by DetectorGuy.)

Here are some different views of the bone: The first one is of the back of the bone and the other two show the width across the knee and middle of the bone.

DiveCaptDean · 08-24-2008, 08:44 PM,

Thats a hell of a haul....where were you diving?...
My wifes grandmother has a home on that lake..and if things go right, i will be closing on a home there next month...we are on the East Side just a few houses down from the AAA Auto Club.

I would definitely have that bone looked at..but have to be honest...i would have brought it to authorities right away...i thought it was too large in diameter compared to its length....My wife...Dr....has no issues with its measurements. and at quick glance certainly thinks it could be human...

very interesting
Deano

DetectorGuy · 08-25-2008, 05:23 AM,

I had the bone looked at by a veterinarian last night and it is definitely a lower leg bone from a steer. she showed me that it had a knuckle joint at both ends and no ball and socket joint at one end like a femur would have. That was a relief. I was at the East end and I have over the last year dove a search pattern from the golf course near the AAA club around the East end going North and across the North side going West as far as 11 cabins West of the two float planes on the North side. I did a one tank dive along the penninsula in front of Jeno Palucci's place. All of these searches were done from 15' to 22' of depth. I have pulled 14 anchors out of this lake in the last year. There is a sunk boat near the AAA club. If you line up all 3 "A frames" of the swing set on shore and swim out to about 18' depth you will find the boat. Also between the two float planes there is a large boulder field with manny, many bass that are not afraid of bubbles. The 8 springs are on the North shore of the bay in the North East end of the lake in about 16' of water. This friend of ours in the niece of the late Jim Marshal, I understand he was one of the founders of the GLSPS and he had tested a mini sub on this Pike Lake.

Shooter · 08-25-2008, 07:10 AM,

Looks like I missed another good one. Thanks for the report and pics.

popolarbear · 08-25-2008, 08:39 AM,

wow! very cool stuff. how does one lose so many anchors??? ive lost only two in my zillion hours on the lake. one was a $120 french anchor that i wraped on a bouy in the st.croix fishing. my pal dove it out for me. the other my line was so frayed it broke. ......im in the market for two used inexpensive mushroom anchors if you find some.
steph-twin cities dude.

DiveCaptDean · (This post was last modified: 08-25-2008, 09:55 AM by DiveCaptDean.)

I knew of the sunken boat....i know Inner Space does its checkout dives there in the "HOLE" out from the AAA club. you have dove the entire E end of the lake..i assume you have been just off the drop off. I have only dove the drop off in front of the houses i was talking about...two and three homes South of the BIG BRICK HOUSE owned by the owner of North Star Ford...dont know his name...I have to ask..what time of day are you diving???? each time i have tried to dive...i cant keep boats away..but again...i am walking in and not using a pontoon boat or anything other than a flag...
I hadnt heard about the sub tests..pretty cool....The wifes family has been on the lake sinse the late 40's...i keep forgetting to talk to them about neat things they may remember...but grandmas getting pretty old and the uncles arent around too much...because of its popularity over the years..i am sure there are alot of neat tidbits about the lake

Great finds..keep it up

Deano

DetectorGuy · 08-25-2008, 11:18 AM,

Over Fourth of July I had this fisherman grab my dive flag and start pulling it into his boat. I tugged hard on the line and he tugged hard back. I looked up and saw the silouette of his boat above me and I un-spooled alot of line to swim away from him. He took the slack as soon as I gave it. I popped up about 15' from his boat and he was definitely scared to see me. He had no clue that it was a dive flag and he was pretty sure that I was a monster. Nothing like a stuttering, drunk fisherman to make you wonder about the dive flag rules and the lack of boaters to take some kind of training to operate a motorized boat on a public lake. I keep my dive flag winder on a "break away" lanyard which is attached to my BC to insure that a boater doesnt snag the dive flag line and rip my BC off. Most divers just hang on to the winder but I like to keep my hands free to run the metal detector or camera.

I have dove the whole East end to a depth of 15' to 18' and in a few areas I have it covered to 24' but no deeper. There are two holes that reach 60' just west of the penninsula that I have not been to yet. If you get a chance Dive between the two float planes on the North side and check out the rock pile. There were so many bass there that I could not see through the school of them (sizeable ones too).

DetectorGuy · 08-25-2008, 07:58 PM,

I don't know of any drop offs at the east end of the lake but there is one shown on maps on the South side on the Western end of the lake in front of Brett Hulls place. (that is the sprawled out brick place) I heard that Brett Hull broke up with his wife and she got the house in town and he got the one on Pike Lake. The place that we set tents up at is a aunt of a friend of ours Her name is Chess and she will turn 102 years old in a month. She was driving a car at 101 years but now she is in a oldsters home. She is as sharp as a tack. She had owned the cabin since 1940 and the inside of it is like walking into a time warp. There is a small creek just south of her cabin and she said that her relatives found arrow heads in the creek back in the 1960's. This old gal used to work at the Duluth Tribune I guess. There is a preacher named Thor that lives just North of her cabin. Jeno Palucci (the pizza Baron) has the green house with the yellow trim on the South side of the lake and Jeno bought the whole peninsula. I would hate to see what his taxes are as Taxes are based on lineal footage of lake shore. He must have 800' to 1000' of lakeshore. The grounds keeper is all that we have seen after the 12 times we have been on the lake. I kinda think that there would be a thousand baseball caps on the bottom between the points, as most boats leave the walleye fishing area and open up the throttle about there.