Historic droughts are never a good thing, but in the case of record low water levels at one lake in Oregon, there’s at least one silver lining: the discovery of an abandoned town swallowed up by a reservoir more than six decades ago.
The town is question is known as Old Detroit, and according to Smithsonian Magazine and The Statesman Journal, the 200 residents of the town abandoned their homes after Congress passed a law approving the construction of a new dam that would flood the area.
That dam led to the creation of the reservoir named Detroit Lake, which this year just happens to be at its lowest levels in 46 years due to a lack of rainfall in the region. As a result, officials have discovered the remains of Old Detroit, including a perfectly preserved 19th century wagon which was found half-buried in the mud.
“I went on a treasure hunt down along the river, figuring I’d find foundations or something like that,” Dave Zahn, a sheriff’s deputy in Marion County, Oregon, told The Statesman Journal just after Christmas. “Then I saw a piece of old history right there.”
Wagon was built by Ohio company in 1875
A lack of snowfall last winter caused the water levels at Detroit lake to sink to a five-decade low of 143 feet below capacity. This led Zahn and several others to poke around to see what they could find, and led to the discovery of not just the wagon, but a cement-lined pit as well. Thus far, the octagonal-shaped structure has not been identified.
Zahn first spotted the wagon on October 29, and he and US Forest Service archaeologist Cara Kelly opted to keep it a secret to prevent looting and vandalism, Smithsonian Magazine explained. A metal plate attached to the wagon states that it was originally built by the Milburn Wagon Company of Toledo, Ohio in 1875.
Low oxygen levels helped keep the wagon in almost perfect condition, and Kelly explained that to the best of her knowledge, it had not been spotted until this year. “This might not have been its original resting place,” she told the Journal. “It could’ve come from anywhere in the town of Detroit or even up the drainage. The flood of 1964 moved a lot of things; it even brought houses down. The lake was just covered with logs and debris back then.”
While Zahn said that he had heard many stories about Old Detroit during his 12 years working as a deputy in the area, and that he was thrilled to have an opportunity to see some artifacts from the settlement for himself, he added that he hoped it would be a long time before another opportunity like this presented itself. “Hopefully it will be another 40 years before Detroit’s this low again,” Zahn said.
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Image credit: Statesman Journal/Dave Zahn
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