This was a rather strange and compelling mystery when it emerged earlier this month:
Dubbed the "Ghost Boat" by officials, the decayed carcass of a second world war Higgins boat, used to transport troops into battle and on to beaches overseas, began to emerge from the shallows in Lake Shasta last fall. Levels have sunk low enough this year to excavate the craft fully.
But how it ended up in California's largest reservoir, buried in the depths for decades, is uncertain.
Now, however, an intrepid amateur detective thinks he has figured out just how the heck that ended up there:
On Sunday, Shasta-Trinity National Forest posted on social media that they'd found a boat once used on the USS Monrovia, a storied troop transport vessel that saw action in Europe and the Pacific. As Shasta Lake receded in the worsening drought, the boat emerged from the depths. But no one was quite sure how it ended up there.
Thanks to an eagle-eyed reader, there may be an answer of sorts. After the story published on SFGATE, Bay Area reader Tom Ruppel emailed with his find. "Check out the Redding Record-Searchlight of Feb. 15, 1969," Ruppel wrote. "There's a story and photo spread of USFS workers clearing debris from Shasta Lake using these vessels. There are a couple of pictures of the craft, but I couldn't make out any hull numbers. My money's on that."
I gotta say, I personally find it pretty compelling!
