Underwater treasures

Diver Ron Bakken has never discovered a steamboat, ferris wheel or other artifacts rumored to be at rest on the bottom of White Bear Lake. But he has unearthed a relic from long before pleasure-seekers made White Bear a resort destination.

The lifelong diver and White Bear Lake resident found a bison skull thousands of years old off the coast of Manitou Island. The skull was mostly buried in muck — only the teeth were protruding. “It looked like neat lines of pebbles at first,” he said. Dozens of crayfish dodged out of orifices when he pulled the skull out.

Bakken said an expert from the Science Museum of Minnesota dated the skull at roughly 16,000 years old. The bison reportedly was as big as a full-size van and had horns nearly six feet long. He’s also discovered another bison skull, albeit much smaller, as well as a number of bones...[VadnaisHeightsPress]