# Anyone know where to get that 100yr/old Lumber from the bottom of a lake in Canada? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 2, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586 "2007-02-02T19:00:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/1 "2007-02-02T19:00:13Z")
I was watching Dirty Jobs the other day and they were dragging the bottom of some river or lake in Canada (ontario) - they were looking for logs that had sunk to the bottom over a century ago…They were using sidescan sonar in hopes of finding it, which they did, and dragging some up to the surface to sell. It was terribly expensive, but the lumber is stuff you cannot find anymore…curly maple 36" in diameter…for those log hounds {get your heads out of the gutter} those people who love wood - {again no heads in the gutter} this would be a great thing to get your hands on. Anyone know where I can buy it? Online or willing to travel… ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/2 "2007-02-02T19:11:33Z")
I regularly see ads for this stuff in my husband’s woodworking magazines. I don’t know that it’s appropriate to post company names here-- but you might try a google search on “submerged log recovery” or “sunken timber.” ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/3 "2007-02-02T19:22:18Z")
Don’t need company names: Magazine names would be nice:)… Anecdotes for anyone who has seen or been around the stuff would be cool too ! ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/4 "2007-02-02T19:28:24Z")
Does this help at all? [Timeless Timber](http://www.timelesstimber.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/5 "2007-02-02T19:37:51Z")
Oh Good Og! Thank You ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/6 "2007-02-02T19:46:00Z")
_The New Yankee Workshop_ promotes someone called [Goodwin Heartpine.](http://www.heartpine.com/index2.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/7 "2007-02-02T20:36:04Z")
The company that was featured on _Dirty Jobs_ is [Georgian Bay Wet Wood](http://www.georgianbaywetwood.com/index.cfm?). ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/8 "2007-02-02T21:01:38Z")
My wife may have a coronary when she sees it come on a flat bed, then looks at the check book and sees the damage there - but it’s worth it… Especially when I make her the jewelry box she has always wanted me to make… ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/9 "2007-02-03T07:31:24Z")
I don’t understand why there is lumber lurking about at the bottoms of lakes. edit: Hmm, the links say it’s from heavy logs that sank. I didn’t think the more common sorts of wood would sink like that. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/10 "2007-02-03T08:35:49Z")
If you have some left to make any [drums](http://www.pro-music-news.com/html/05/e21003dr.htm) with, let me now :D. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/11 "2007-02-03T16:36:23Z")
[QUOTE=Phlosphr] My wife may have a coronary when she sees it come on a flat bed, then looks at the check book and sees the damage there - but it’s worth it… Especially when I make her the jewelry box she has always wanted me to make.. [/QUOTE] Big jewelry box if it needs 3 foot wide curly maple. And if it doesn’t, you can pick up the narrower sizes much cheaper. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/12 "2007-02-03T16:53:45Z")
[QUOTE=Finagle] Big jewelry box if it needs 3 foot wide curly maple. And if it doesn’t, you can pick up the narrower sizes much cheaper. [/QUOTE] I’d bet the jewelry box is just the propitiation gift. The rest of it’s for HIM… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-where-to-get-that-100yr-old-lumber-from-the-bottom-of-a-lake-in-canada/390586/13 "2007-02-03T17:42:36Z")
The latest issue of Wired has an article about a company that is harvesting, not just individual logs, but entire sunken _forests_: [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/logs.html](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/logs.html) > [@](#): > > This unusual harvesting method is made possible by a submersible that can probe the deepest reservoirs for under-water trees to cut and deliver to the surface. It was developed by Chris Godsall, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of Triton Logging. The company is based near Victoria, but the principal underwater logging operation is at Ootsa Lake, almost 750 miles to the north. The lake was formed in 1954, when Alcan, the world’s second-largest aluminum producer, built a hydroelectric dam here to power its smelter. The water behind the dam flooded millions of lodgepole pine, spruce, Douglas fir, and hemlock trees, leaving some $1.2 billion worth of timber preserved in a kind of suspended animation. In the cold, dark, oxygen-poor water, tree wood won’t decay for thousands of years. And Ootsa is one of 45,000 spots around the globe where dams have inundated valleys and submerged vast forests. By some estimates, there is $50 billion worth of marketable timber at the bottom of these man-made lakes. Godsall is quick to point out that he has the only technology able to retrieve it.