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Has a Stonehenge like structure been discovered underneath the waters of Lake Michigan. If so, the site could be around 10,000 years old!

[Image: Standing stones beneath Lake Michigan? View larger].

In a surprisingly under-reported story from 2007, Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan University College, discovered a series of stones – some of them arranged in a circle and one of which seemed to show carvings of a mastodon – 40-feet beneath the surface waters of Lake Michigan.
If verified, the carvings could be as much as 10,000 years old – coincident with the post-Ice Age presence of both humans and mastodons in the upper midwest.

[Image: The stones beneath Lake Michigan; view larger].

In a PDF assembled by Holley and Brian Abbott to document the expedition, we learn that the archaeologists had been hired to survey a series of old boat wrecks using a slightly re-purposed “sector scan sonar” device. You can read about the actual equipment – a Kongsberg-Mesotech MS 1000 – here.
The circular images this thing produces are unreal; like some strange new art-historical branch of landscape representation, they form cryptic dioramas of long-lost wreckage on the lake bed. Shipwrecks (like the Tramp, which went down in 1974); a “junk pile” of old boats and cars; a Civil War-era pier; and even an old buggy are just some of the topographic features the divers discovered.
These are anthropological remains that will soon be part of the lake’s geology; they are our future trace fossils.
But down amongst those otherwise mundane human remains were the stones.

[Image: The “junk pile” of old cars and boat skeletons; view larger].

While there is obviously some doubt as to whether or not that really is a mastodon carved on a rock – let alone if it really was human activity that arranged some of the rocks into a Stonehenge-like circle – it’s worth pointing out that Michigan does already have petroglyph sites and even standing stones.
A representative of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology has even commented that, although he’s skeptical, he’s interested in learning more, hoping to see better photographs of the so-called “glyph stone.”

[Image: The stones; view larger].

So is there a North American version of Stonehenge just sitting up there beneath the glacial waters of a small northern bay in Lake Michigan? If so, are there other submerged prehistoric megaliths waiting to be discovered by some rogue archaeologist armed with a sonar scanner?
Whatever the answer might be, the very suggestion is interesting enough to think about – where underwater archaeology, prehistoric remains, and lost shipwrecks collide to form a midwestern mystery: National Treasure 3 or Da Vinci Code 2. Even Ghostbusters: The Return.
But only future scuba expeditions will be able to tell for sure.

Certainly, there are more tests needed to be done to confirm these findings but if this actually turns out to be a man made object then it would place the building of the stones at around 10,000 years ago when the waters of Lake Michigan were much lower due to the glaciation of the area.  This time period would also coincide with the extinction of the mastodons in this area.  Several pictures of the mastodon are below.

Of course, there is a lot of skepticism with this so called Stonehenge like structure.  And the supposed mastodon carving is not too clear in any pictures as of yet.  There will need to be many underwater scuba investigations of the area before any of this can be confirmed.  One thing the area does have going for it is that there are numerous petroglyph sites and even standing stones.  The problem is that these ancient sites are much younger than when the Stonehenge site would have been above water so the questions will remain until better investigations are completed.

So, what is your opinion on these findings?  Are they just naturally placed rocks underneath the water and what appears to be a mastodon is just the odd shape of the cracks in the rock?  In my opinion, we need more information before a decision can be reached.  I am fascinated by these findings though and am utterly intrigued by the numbers of underwater structures we have been finding in the past several decades.  It certainly appears that our ancestors had many of their home territories flooded at the end of the last Ice Age and we are now just beginning to find these ancient ruins underneath the waters around the globe.  Who knows what awaits us underneath these waters to be discovered.  I, for one, cannot wait to see.( VIA)socyberty.com