ALPENA, Mich. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Rising water levels in the Great Lakes, combined with powerful storms, are revealing pieces of history along the shorelines.
The Great Lakes, during powerful storms, have been churning up sand and revealing long-buried shipwrecks - primarily century-old remnants of wooden ships.
Michigan Maritime Archeologist Wayne Lusardi said sightings of wooden pieces of shipwrecks have been common in recent weeks along Thunder Bay in Alpena and other communities dotting Lake Huron's shoreline as high waters wash those artifacts ashore.
"We are getting a little bit of everything," Lusardi said. "A lot are just individual planks and frames, for example, but in Muskegon earlier this spring we had an entire 130-foot long shipwreck that was exposed for the first time in something like 50 years."
It has happened in Indiana, as well. Lusardi said in Lake Huron a 45-foot section of the ribs of an old, wooden ship, long-buried under a sand dune was exposed.
"The vast majority of shipwrecks, I think that occurred in the Great Lakes probably happened in the later 19th century," he said.
Lusardi said that this summer's shoreline erosion is giving archeologists opportunities to draw, photograph, measure, and study the artifacts; and he said they have to act fast, because they might not be exposed for very long.
"It's a great window of opportunity, because you don't know if you go out there tomorrow, they may be completely buried again," Lusardi said. "So you really have to react right now."