The site of Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, PA, has officially been sold. The deal was closed yesterday to make “BethWorks Nowâ€

[quote]On a related note, the History Channel show “Deep Sea Detectivesâ€

This is a fun show. I work in the diving industry and specialize in technical diving like that featured in Deep Sea Detectives. I'm not sure if people are aware, but there many dive sites where interesting trains or railroading artifacts are present. One that comes to mind is Bonne Terre mine in Missourri. There, a friend of mine took incredible footage of a narrow gauge steam locomotive on the bottom of the underground lake. It is in such good condition, it looks as if you could pull it out, coal her up and light her off. Another deep open pit mine dive site in Missourri recently reported cave divers finding a "lost" mine train in some underground mine passage that goes underground from the main open pit mine at a depth of around 160 feet. I am a cave diver and would like to check this one out. Also, all the Red Birds from NY's commuter fleet have recently become several artificial reefs off of New York and New Jersey. I know of another wreck along the old over seas railroad in the keys where railroad equipment has become part of the reef. This is in pretty ragged condition due to salt water and coral encrustation. A friend of mine in Pennsylvania recovered a ship's capstan (sp?) off the east coast. Amazingly, it was built by Lionel during WWII. I got such a kick out of that famous logo on that artifact when I saw it. I'm positive there are many more, but I just can't remember them all right now. On a recent trip to north Florida for cave diving, I was told a story of a 1860-70's steam engine that fell in the Suwannee River and almost totally sank in the late 1800's. It was there for something like 85 years until a local man spent several hundred thousand dollars to pull it out and then he sat it in the front yard right in front of his house in Luraville, Florida. I don't remember what the loco was, some esoteric small 4-4-0 or some such. But, it did undergo some restoration and I guess it now sits at the Florida Agricultural Museum I think. I remember seeing a picture of it in a book and the caption said it was the oldest example of such a steamer. Pretty interesting I think.
Ryan Parkevich

We worked with KPI on the Regina wreck story, and they did some extensive filming of our Huron Lightship satellite facility and items in our Marine Collection from the Regina in our Main Museum. Having worked with a couple of pushy producers who cared little for our collections and only "for the shot", I was utterly surprised by both the professionalism of the crew and the production company, who not only respected our rather lengthy list of "must do's" for filming items in our collection, but did a wonderful job of getting us known to those outside the Great Lakes. Wayne Arnold, our very knowledgable site manager, gets recognized all the time from that show, which was first shown in 2003 and has been shown many times since. If anyone on the board has the chance to work with KPI production or this show, I highly suggest doing so.