Father and daughter fishing on Lake Michigan find 1871 SHIPRWECK after thinking their sonar picked up an octopus

A father and daughter accidentally discovered what is believed to be an 1871 shipwreck while fishing on Lake Michigan.

Tim Wollak and six-year-old Henley, of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, were in Green Bay near Green Island in August when their sonar picked up what the child thought was an octopus, according to WLUK TV.

Wollak shared the photos on Facebook believing it was a sunken ship and eventually caught the attention of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

It confirmed the The object was the wreck of a three-masted wooden sailing ship under eight feet of water on Monday, after a remote underwater vehicle surveyed the site on December 4.

Archaeologists believe the ship is the 100-foot George L. Newman, which sank during the deadly Peshtigo fire that killed up to 1,500 people 152 years ago.

Tim Wollak and six-year-old Henley, of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, were in Green Bay near Green Island in August when their sonar picked up what the child thought was an octopus.

Wollak shared the photos on Facebook believing it was a sunken ship and eventually caught the attention of the Wisconsin Historical Society

“I was surprised I had never seen it before because it is in an area where people visit regularly,” Wollak said.

The Wisconsin Historical Society shared an update on Facebook stating that it had investigated the area and confirmed that the discovery was a shipwreck.

“While the identity of the wreck remains to be confirmed, its location and current available data are consistent with that of the barquentine George L. Newman,” it wrote.

“On the evening of October 8, 1871, the Barquentine was sailing through the thick smoke of the Great Peshtigo Fire—the deadliest fire in U.S. history—carrying a cargo of lumber from Little Suamico, when it ran aground on the southeastern tip of Green Island. ‘

The crew aboard the ship were rescued by the lighthouse keeper and remained on Green Island for a week.

They tried to salvage what they could before the ship was abandoned, covered in sand and forgotten.

“It was actually built in 1855, so it’s a pretty important shipwreck, pretty old anyway for shipwrecks in Wisconsin,” said Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist for the Wisconsin Historical Society.

“The fact that it is linked to the Peshtigo Fire makes it even more special.”

There are plans to re-examine the wreck next spring and the historical society could push for the site to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

There are plans to re-examine the wreck next spring and the historical society could push for the site to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

“I don’t know how we can top it,” Wollak said. ‘I told her [Henley] I’m pretty sure there’s no one else at her school who has ever found a shipwreck that no one had recorded before.

“I guess we just need to fish more and see if we can find more shipwrecks.”

The Peshtigo Fire has been ranked as the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history.

Railroad workers clearing land for tracks sparked a forest fire that quickly engulfed up to 1.5 million hectares of land, survivors claimed.

It set fire to parts of Door and Kewaunee counties and consumed Peshtigo within an hour, according to the National Weather Service website.

The discovery of the shipwreck comes three months after a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan in 1881 was discovered with the crew’s belongings still on board, close to the Wisconsin coastline.

It was hailed by historians as a ‘remarkable discovery’.

It is estimated that more than 6,000 ships have sunk in the Great Lakes since the 17th century.