IS THIS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE OF THE WAUWINET?

Hidden beneath the calm waters of Eagle Lake a ghost vessel of sorts lies at rest on the lakes murky bottom, a vessel with the unusual name of Wauwinet,  Considering the size of the lake, the Wauwinet was a pretty large vessel capable of ferrying 100 passengers across the lake.  How such a massive vessel arrived at the lake is a story in itself, it had to be slowly dragged to the shores of the lake from a pier in Bar Harbor, with the progress being painfully slow.  The arrival of the vessel to its new home was vital to the future success of the Green Mountain Railway Company, which was to operate a cog train from the shore of the lake to the summit of Green Mountain, today named Cadillac Mountain, and to reach the vessel one journeyed out to the large on large horse drawn buckboards, where  the buckboards would slowly fill with anxious customers as they made their way from one hotel to the next.


Books and old newspaper accounts describe different accounts of how the Wauwinet ended up in a watery grave, one account  states the vessel was stripped down and moved into Nick's Cove where it was sunk, and that today, on a clam day, you can take a boat out on Nick's Cove and look down into the water and see some of the timbers of the vessel.

But there are two other accounts of what happened to the Wauwinet and both accounts place the vessel not too far from the wharf the Wauwinet called home.   One says the vessel was hauled  a short ways out on the lake and sunk, while another account paints a more dramatic picture,  with the vessel becoming surrounded by ice as it made its way to the pier, the pressure from the froming ice on the lake wrecking havoc with the sides of the vessel and sending it to its current resting place.

I am not a detective but I do like pouring over old maps and it dawned on me, if I used Google Maps, could I find evidence of where the large vessel lay on the lake bottom?  Two things jumped out at me as soon as I brought up the map, first there is an outline of a pier under water, in the same area the pier for the Wauwinet was located in, why would the pier be under water is a fair question one might ask, with an easy answer.  Back in the Day, the Bar Harbor Water Company needed to stabilize the water level of the lake, this was done by building up the shoreline in certain areas and constructing a dam which raised the level of the lake, drowning sand beaches and piers along the edge of the lake, lawsuits followed from angry landowners whose acreage was reduced by the rising waters of the lake.

The next thing that jumped out at me was a large object which resembles a large vessel, a short ways out from shore, about at the spot two articles placed it at. 

On the map I marked the only spot on the lake in that area that appears to be an underwater wharf. I also marked an object under water, not far from the wharf, that looks like it might be the remains of a large vessel. How large was the Wauwinet, large enough to carry about 100 passengers. And in an old newspaper article a fisherman states he was out on the lake on a calm day and could see sections of the vessel under water.

As for the story of Nick's Cove, at least on Google and Bing maps I have not discovered any evidence of a vessel at the bottom of the lake in that location.  Nick's cove got its name from Nick Currin who owned and operated Currin House by the shore of the lake.  Currin House was a place  one could catch a good nights sleep or fill ones stomach with a home cooked meal.

This person places theIS THIS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE OF THE WAUWINET? not far from the wharf