For more than a century, the ship and its contents laid undisturbed, frozen in time. However, with the invention and popularization of scuba gear during the 1950s and 1960s, this suddenly changed. In the mid-1960s, divers discovered the remains of the Niagara. For more than two decades, treasure hunters and salvagers thoroughly stripped artifacts and fittings from what was probably Wisconsin's greatest treasure trove of nineteenth century cultural artifacts. Rumors tell of entire crates of unbroken china and other artifacts being hauled off to the garages of Wisconsin and Illinois. Unfortunately, the knowledge that could have been gained by studying those artifacts is lost forever.

The structure of the wreck itself suffered additional damage by looters. One of the Niagara's two great paddlewheels, 30 feet in diameter, survived upright and largely intact into the 1980s, until a diver toppled it in a search for artifacts. Today, fragments of the wheel lie on the port side of the hull, directly abeam the engine assembly.

Despite the unfortunate pillage, the wreck of the Niagara remains a rich source of information about mid-nineteenth century shipbuilding technology and maritime culture. In 1993, the Wisconsin Historical Society began archaeological and historical research on the Niagara, one of the few examples of sidewheel steamers still in existence.

The Niagara

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