Aerial drones seem to get all the attention, but their seafaring counterparts have made some amazing discoveries, from long-lost sunken ships to what may be Amelia Earhart’s wreckage. Consumer underwater drones are finding interesting artifacts as well, like this Chevy Camaro Z28 that had been sitting at the bottom of Sebago Lake in Maine for many years. Jason Smith said this about his discovery on his Facebook page:
While out on Sebago Lake recently with Glen Gisel and searching around with my drone I stumbled onto this 1970’s era Camaro Z28 in about 55′ fow in the Notch. What I can share for now is it’s out of the lake with the help of Greg Canders and is under investigation by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. Would like to thank them as well as the Maine Warden Service for being out on the water with us while this all took place and everyone else that helped out! Definitely a mystery, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again you never know what you’re going to find down there.
WMTW reports that Smith enjoys dropping his drone into Maine’s lakes as a hobby. He’s made some smaller discoveries in the past, such as a watch, a phone, and even the occasional snowmobile. Smith was actually returning his drone to a snowmobile he’d already found when he saw a shadow, investigated it, and discovered the sunken Z28.
You can’t park there
The Notch that Smith refers to is a narrow gap between a long peninsula into the lake and Frye Island, according to TopoZone. A ferry runs between them, but Cumberland County Sheriff’s detectives confirmed that the Camaro did not fall off the ferry. There would have been a record of it happening, the car would have been pulled out of the water soon afterward, and the locals would never have stopped talking about it. The car is also too far away from shore to have been driven off a road or boat ramp. The current theory is that it fell through the frozen lake one winter and was never reported.
Officials have recovered the Camaro, or at least what’s left of it, as it has rusted quite a bit during its years in the lake. There was nothing inside the car except some old tent parts in the trunk. It had no license plate, but a partial VIN was visible, which led to the car’s identification as a 1974 model. This car has the larger aluminum bumpers, tail lights, and other cosmetic updates of the Camaro’s mid-generation refresh from 1974 to 1977. However, it lacks the wraparound rear window from 1975 on, confirming the year. Also, 1974 was the last year of the Z28 until 1977, and the only year a genuine Z28 would have looked like this.
So the model year is certain, but how this particular Z28 ended up at the bottom of Sebago Lake remains a mystery. Authorities are still trying to track down the last owner from the partial VIN. Was it used for a crime and the evidence destroyed, or was this a simple joyride gone horribly wrong? We don’t know, but we hope the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office gets to the bottom of it.
