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Calgary Herald

Scuba divers confirm rumours of car swallowed up by Lake Minnewanka nearly a century ago

It took only a few minutes of diving time for John Ryan and his team to confirm a decades-long rumour of a car resting on the bottom at the middle of Lake Minnewanka. Article content Article content A week ago, the Airdrie resident and his companions donned wetsuits and fell off an inflatable boat to scour the Banff National Park's lake for a car that had supposedly fallen through the ice in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Article content Article content At a depth of nearly 60 metres about four kilometers from shore, the ghostly sight of an Essex sedan, possibly of 1928 vintage, emerged in the silty, grey-green murk. Article content Article content 'We found it in seven minutes, which is extremely rare,' said Ryan, adding the discovery was made in water with five metres of visibility. Article content 'The lake is slowly giving up its secrets and we're determined to get there.' Article content Ryan and fellow divers Alan Keller and Brian Nadwidny had been tantalized by stories of a Saskatchewan photographer who'd driven his car far out onto the lake's ice and had set up his camera tripod when his vehicle broke through the ice, fortunately without him. Article content The trio had recently received a tip from a man who had detected what could have been the lost car while searching for a body using side-scan sonar. Article content 'We obviously needed to dive for it, there was no two ways about it,' said Ryan. Article content Article content Using their own sonar device on board their boat, the men pinpointed the most likely site for the car in one of the deepest parts of the frigid lake and swiftly found it resting on the lake's silty bottom, the first time humans have laid eyes on it since its disappearance, said Ryan. Article content 'Being the first to see this dusty old car is the reason we do it (given) all the expense and time away from home,' he said. Article content The old Detroit-built car has kept its park pass — metal in those days — and white Saskatchewan licence plates bearing the red numbers 48009.