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Rock Lake Pyramids (Wisconsin; Native American Structures?)

KeyserXSoze

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The Dragon in the Lake -- New Book Reveals Latest Research on the Ancient Underwater Pyramids in Wisconsin

CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill., March 29, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- In the cold murky depths of a Wisconsin lake lay mysterious rock structures wrapped in Native American folklore and local legend. These ancient underwater manmade structures may be the most significant and controversial North American archeological discovery of the twentieth century. In Archie Eschborn's fascinating new book The Dragon in the Lake, you will follow a small band of amateur archeologists led by Eschborn himself as they reveal new research opening up a new chapter in prehistoric North American history and ending decades of controversy on North America's most sacred and secret native American site.

In the book, the author provides compelling new evidence, along with countless professionals, scientists, geologists, researchers, archeologists, anthropologists and divers, who have challenged the status quo of the Wisconsin Historical Society who have clung to their erroneous pronouncements about the fabled "Rock Lake Pyramids" in the first half of the twentieth century.

The Dragon in the Lake takes readers on a wild ride to the coastal waters of Honduras, Mexico, Canada, and the United States to explore one of North America's most enigmatic underwater archeological sites. Investigated and researched by many in the past, none have covered this underwater archeological mystery firsthand like Eschborn. "This exciting, educational ride may soon have some Wisconsin state institutions in turmoil due to the explosive nature of its findings and their potential impact to change the thinking on pre-Columbian migration and trade routes between present-day Mexico and Wisconsin," according to some authorities.

primezone.com/newsroom/?d=75199
Link is dead. The full article (including notes on the author and the book) can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050403120647/http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/?d=75199
 
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I feel that my experience may belong here as well...

This happened about June of 1996. Walking along the Glacial Drumlin Trail (Starting in London, Wisconsin) with two friends of mine who were familiar with the trail, we came across a floating pier (this still doesn't exactly make sense to me, as I have not seen the exact same pier again though I seem to remember it being temporary.) which crossed Rock Lake. I had never heard of the Rock Lake Pyramids before this occasion but when I looked to my left I could clearly make out the tops of several (either 2 or 3) pyramids sticking above the water by four or five feet. I asked my friends about them and they, without looking, naturally, explained the existance of large pyramids, the tallest point of which stood about 20 feet under the surface of Rock Lake!

I have not seen the pyramids since, and I wish I had paid attention to the details. It was so easy to accept it all as a matter of course. I have delved into the small amount of literature on the subject, but still have no idea what happened that day.
 
Here's and excerpt from the overview of The Dragon in the Lake at Google Books:
The Dragon in the Lake takes readers on a wild ride to the coastal waters of Honduras, into Mexico, Canada and the United States to explore one of North Americas most enigmatic underwater archeological sites. Investigated and researched by many in the past, none have covered this underwater archeological mystery first hand like archeological researcher Archie Eschborn.

Learn of the mysterious mathematical relationships that the ancient underwater pyramidal structures in Wisconsin have with their larger pyramid neighbors south of the border at Teotihuacan. Where these ancient Wisconsin stone monuments actually navigational beacons for trade and commerce for the pure copper from Michigan's upper peninsula? Learn the explosive truth about the possible origins and connections between the pyramid builders of ancient Mexico and the links to America's prehistoric Mound Builders..

Eschborn and his research team spent 5 years investigating the ancient stone structures at the bottom of Rock Lake Wisconsin, in hopes of separating fact from fiction. The author's "out of the box" approach to explain the archeology of this site and by using a new method of Landscape Archeology to prove the manmade nature of Wisconsin's submerged prehistoric rock structures is fascinating.

The author's unique background in history and archeology coupled with his project management skills have allowed him to tackle this controversial site and understand its complexities beyond looking at conventional archeological artifacts like stone arrowheads or pottery shards to determine the origins of these underwater rock structures.

FULL BLURB: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Dragon_in_the_Lake.html?id=Kr7pt5mU-DUC
 
Here's some basic background info ...

Rock Lake is in south central Wisconsin, at Lake Mills, Wisconsin in Jefferson County, Wisconsin approximately 20 miles (32 km) east of Madison. Rock Lake is a 1365 acre lake with a maximum depth of 60 feet (18.3 m). ...

Rock Lake is perhaps most famous for its underwater rock piles frequently claimed to be pyramids built by the Mississippian culture at a time when water levels were much lower.

Mounds shaped like pyramids exist three miles (5 km) east of Rock Lake in Aztalan State Park on the Crawfish River in the town of Aztalan, Wisconsin. The park has National Landmark Status. The mounds are thought to have been built by the Mississippian culture and it is speculated that the site at Aztalan was a northern outpost of Cahokia, a much larger city in present-day Illinois not far from St. Louis, Missouri. ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Lake_(Wisconsin)
 
This 2018 local article provides some historical background on the Rock Lake legend ...
Unsolved Mystery: Are There Ancient Underwater Pyramids in Rock Lake?

Rock Lake, at some 1,300 acres in western Jefferson County, is only about half the size of Pewaukee Lake. Its water is murky, a screen of silt and algae stirred up by the weather. Lake Mills, the town on its eastern shore, has had several businesses with the word “pyramid” in their names ...

The Lake Mills Chamber of Commerce has promoted a legend that large stone structures lie beneath Rock Lake, dating back hundreds of years. The chamber claims Native Americans built pyramids in a valley, hoping to end a drought, and the gods responded by filling the valley with water.

The modern history of that legend began in the early 20th century, when a variety of divers and local fishermen reported seeing structures in the lake that looked man-made. Most famously, Wisconsin diving pioneer Max Nohl dived into the lake in 1937 and came across a stone structure that “looked like an upside down ice cream cone.”

That’s according to the Rock Lake Research Society, a group of divers, pilots and scientists that launched several expeditions between the late 1990s and early 2000s, resulting in a series of tantalizing photos but no conclusive evidence.

The society and other investigators have enjoyed little to no support from mainstream scientists. Former state archaeologist Bob Birmingham told the Wisconsin State Journal in 2015 that the tales were “a bunch of baloney.” The structures are just rock piles left by glaciers, Birmingham and others say.

In recent years, believers have used sophisticated sonar systems to produce maps of such large shapes as an 18-foot tall, tent-shaped stone pyramid with a 60-foot by 100-foot base. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.milwaukeemag.com/unsolved-mystery-ancient-underwater-pyramids-rock-lake/
 
This blog page provides more background on the diver Max Nohl and his exploration of Rock Lake. According to this account it seems to have occurred in 1936.
The Diver and the Sunken Necropolis

Salvage diver, Adventurer, MIT grad and Milwaukee native Max Gene Nohl invented the first self contained underwater breathing apparatus(SCUBA). In the winter of 1937, he tested the suit and pioneered a helium/oxygen breathing mixture in a record breaking 420 foot dive to the bottom of Lake Michigan. The helium/oxygen mixture idea was co-developed with fellow Milwaukeean Dr. Edgar End of the Marquette School of Medicine. In one bold move, the diving world took a quantum leap forward and Milwaukee was it's ground zero. "The Deepest Dive" made international news and it's young diver was a sudden celebrity. Nohl immediately announced plans to dive the wreck of the Lusitania and film the entire adventure as a feature documentary.

This was not the first dive using his new equipment. The previous summer had brought the veteran salvage diver to the pyramids of Rock Lake in Lake Mills, Wisconsin.

For years, fishermen and pleasure boaters had reported seeing unusual underwater structures. They were well known in Indian lore as a Necropolis(city of the dead) left behind by "Foriegner Kings"-a people who had inhabited the area 5,000 years before . The structures were first described as "pyramidal" in newspaper articles in 1900 during a wave of pyramid mania that swept the Badger State. Max Nohl could'nt resist. He made a series of dives in the late summer. Underwater conditions were difficult -at times murky, then suddenly clear, then very dark and almost black with silt. Toward the end of his last dive, he came across a tall pyramidal structuremade of densely fitted small rocks. To the eye of the trained engineer, it was clearly man made. Max wanted to return to the lake and dive more extensively, but it wasn't to be. Many years later, before he could return, he and his wife died in a tragic car accident that also took the life of soul singer, Jesse Belvin. The undersea structures of Rock Lake remain a mystery and are the subject of ongoing research.

SOURCE: http://wisconsinology.blogspot.com/2007/11/diver-and-sunken-city-of-dead.html
 
There are two extensive webpages at the JaySea Archaeology blog site that are perhaps the most detailed and best-documented online resources on the tangled and circuitous history of the Rock Lake pyramids legend.

The first is a comprehensive review of the legend's demonstrable origins and purported inspirations. It concludes with events occurring during the Sixties. The second covers developments from the Seventies onward, with an overwhelming focus on a certain Illinois neo-Nazi who labored for decades to promote the idea the Rock Lake pyramids were of Atlantean derivation. This latter narrative is high strangeness in and of itself.

If nothing else, these blog pages provide the most extensive bibliographies of sources I've yet found ...

The Enigma in the Lake: The Rock Lake Pyramids
https://jayseaarchaeology.wordpress...critical-inquiry-into-the-rock-lake-pyramids/

The Enigma in the Lake: The Rock Lake Pyramids Part II
https://jayseaarchaeology.wordpress...-inquiry-into-the-rock-lake-pyramids-part-ii/
 
Some excellent links there, Enola. I've not kept up on any latest findings or theories, meself. I'll have to give those a good look-see.

This is the book I currently own (although I haven't re-read it in many years): https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Pyramids-Rock-Lake-Civilization/dp/B01A68HC9M

I believe it was the same guy who did a sorta homemade documentary I was able to check out from the library circa 20 years ago.
 
I was surprised to discover the extent of investigative / historical writings available on the 'Net.

The story of the legend of the Rock Lake pyramids is almost as Fortean as the idea there are pyramids on the bottom of Rock Lake.
:evillaugh:
 
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