'Truly Ornate And Still Beautiful:' 130-Year-Old Shipwreck Found In Lake Superior [Video]

A 130-year-old shipwreck was discovered 650 feet below the surface of Lake Superior, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced Thursday.

The Atlanta, a 172-foot schooner, was located 35 miles offshore from Deer Park in the Upper Peninsula after a search of more than 2,500 miles of the bottom of Lake Superior.

The vessel sank on May 4, 1891, during a terrible storm. To everyone's surprise, the shipwreck was preserved in the icy water. Even the gold letters of the ship's name plate were still visible.

"It is truly ornate and still beautiful," Bruce Lynn, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, said in a statement this week. "It is rare that we find a shipwreck that so clearly announces what it is and the nameboard of the Atlanta really stands out."

The discovery solves another mystery of what happened to hundreds of vessels swallowed by the lake. The depth where the shipwreck was found was beyond what a human diver and sunlight could reach. The temperature in the water was in the low to mid-30s, making it possible to preserve shipwrecks.

Society spokesman Corey Adkins said the discovery would also provide some relief to the families of the crew who didn't survive.

"Many people out there think the Edmund Fitzgerald is the only shipwreck on the lakes," he said. "While that's an important shipwreck on the lake — 29 men lost their lives on it — five people lost their lives on the Atlanta."

"Their stories," he added, "don't deserve, for lack of a better term, to get washed away."

There are more than 6,000 Great Lakes shipwrecks, which have taken the lives of 30,000 mariners, according to the society. About 550 wrecks — most of which are undiscovered — are in Lake Superior.

This shipwreck was found after the society mapped more than 2,500 miles of Lake Superior last summer with Marine Sonic Technology using side-scan sonar, a sonar system for detecting and imaging objects on the seafloor.

"No one has to ask where the Atlanta is anymore," Darryl Ertel, director of marine operations in the society press release, said.