The Steamboat That Time Forgot: Bear Lake’s Submerged History Runs Deeper Than You Think
Before jet skis and fiberglass hulls, before the marina at Garden City and the annual raspberry shakes, Bear Lake had a different kind of maritime presence. In the late 1800s, a pioneer named Joe Rich — one of the earliest settlers in the Bear Lake Valley — claimed to have built and launched the first steamboat in what was then southeastern Idaho. His vessel was slated to launch from the Hot Springs on the lake’s northeast shore.
Rich was not a modest man. His list of firsts for the region reads like a frontier resume: first mail carrier on snowshoes from Franklin to Paris, first commander of the Utah Militia in Bear Lake, first Justice of the Peace, postmaster, county recorder, and county auditor. He was the kind of man who built things and put them in the water.
We do not know exactly what became of that steamboat.
What the Past Left Behind
Bear Lake has been a working body of water for as long as people have lived beside it. Long before recreational boating became the dominant activity, the lake carried commercial vessels, fishing operations, and the ambitions of frontier entrepreneurs. The 1800s brought steamboats. The early 1900s brought motorized craft. Each decade added new technology — and new opportunities for that technology to end up on the lake’s floor.
Historic shipwrecks and submerged artifacts are not rare in American lakes. They are, in fact, so common that entire diving communities organize around finding them. Bear Lake is no exception. Divers who know the lake well point to Cisco Beach as a site that holds a sunken boat and, more remarkably, an area locals have long called “the Car Lot” — a section of lakebed where dozens of vehicles were reportedly submerged in the 1930s, forming what became an accidental artificial reef. These objects now rest between 65 and 85 feet deep, their exact positions shifting as the lake’s water elevation changes year to year.
History and Pollution Are Not Mutually Exclusive
There is a temptation to romanticize submerged historical objects — to see them as time capsules rather than contamination risks. And there is real archaeological value in some of what lies at the bottom of Utah’s lakes. But we have to be honest about what old vehicles and old vessels actually contain. Lead paint. Asbestos insulation. Gasoline residue. Oil. Battery acid. Hydraulic fluid. The technology of any era carries the toxins of that era, and those materials do not become harmless simply because they are old.
A car submerged in the 1930s has had nearly a century to leach its contents into Bear Lake’s sediment. A steamboat boiler from the 1880s may carry heavy metals that have been migrating through the lakebed for over a hundred years. This is not hypothetical pollution — it is ongoing, slow, and cumulative. And it is happening in one of Utah’s most ecologically sensitive and recreationally beloved lakes.
The Civic Responsibility of Recovery
Joe Rich built things for his community. He launched boats and carried mail and kept records because he believed in the place he called home. We share that instinct. Fathom Restoration was founded on the belief that Utah’s waterways belong to everyone — and that protecting them from underwater debris, whether that debris is a week old or a century old, is a civic responsibility, not just an environmental one.
We conduct systematic surveys of Utah lake beds using sonar technology. We document what we find. We work with historical preservation authorities where objects may have cultural value, and we extract and properly dispose of those that pose environmental hazards. We are not treasure hunters. We are environmental stewards, and we believe Bear Lake deserves the same quality of care today that its early settlers tried to give it when they first arrived.
Dive Into Our Mission
Bear Lake’s history runs deep — literally. If you are a diver who has encountered submerged objects, a resident who has heard stories about what lies at the bottom, or simply someone who wants to see Utah’s lakes cleaned and protected, we want to connect with you. Visit fathomrestoration.org to learn more, report a submerged vehicle or vessel, or support our work.
Source: Joe Rich Launches Steamboat on Bear Lake — Herald Journal
Fathom Restoration is a Utah nonprofit dedicated to recovering submerged vehicles, vessels, and debris from Utah’s lakes and waterways. Donate, volunteer, or report a submerged vehicle at fathomrestoration.org.
