Underwater footage of an assortment of props — including plastic skeletons and a lawnmower — in a flooded old mining pit in the US state of Minnesota were in fact placed by divers over the years, contrary to Korean-language posts on YouTube and TikTok that suggested the scenes were filmed deep under the sea. Though the false claims suggested a “strange incident” had taken place, the diver who filmed the video told AFP the props were planted before 2003, likely as “easter eggs” for other people to find.
“Actual discoveries found underneath the deep ocean,” read the Korean-language title of the YouTube video posted on February 12, which has garnered over 2.2 million views.
“Bizarre skeleton found in the deep ocean,” read text above the video, which shows underwater footage of a skeleton tied to a metal object, a tombstone, a lawnmower and another skeleton apparently dressed like a pirate.
“A man found these bizarre items while diving in Minnesota,” additional captions in the video said.
“The diver went inside the ship to investigate further but found nothing more than a lawnmower. What strange incident has happened here?”
The same video was shared alongside similar captions on TikTok and DC Inside, a popular South Korean forum.
Users left comments indicating they believed the footage showed a genuine discovery.
“I don’t doubt these are real,” one wrote. “I’ve heard of cases where skeletons were found completely intact underwater.”
“Something very wrong happened here,” another said. “They should conduct DNA testing on the bodies.”
In fact, the objects were planted by divers in an old mining pit in the midwestern US state of Minnesota.
Diving props
A Google reverse image search found the clip corresponded to a video published on YouTube on June 17, 2011, titled “Scuba Diving Minnesota: Eternal Bliss – Louise, Revisited in HD” (archived link).
The description read: “Video from a popular dive site in Minnesota that shows many of the props planted by divers over the years, plastic skeletons, training platform, pirate dingy, Marissa the Mermaid, Sparky, sailboat, a lawn mower, bicycle, snowmobile and various other items.
“This is also the dive site that has a statue of Jason Voorhees, planted a few years after this video was made.”
Below are screenshot comparisons between the video shared in the false posts (left) and the original footage published on YouTube in 2011 (right):
Curtis Lahr, the diver who shot and uploaded the video, told AFP he was unsure who planted each item but most of them were already placed before he started diving at the spot in 2003.
“I can only speculate on the reasoning,” he said. “My guess is they’re an ‘easter egg’ for other divers to find.”
Further keyword searches found a report by the Minnesota Monthly magazine published on March 13, 2018 that explained the history of the dive site, a flooded old mining pit called Lake Louise (archived link).
Divers began exploring the abandoned mines in the late 1980s, the report said, and eventually the plastic skeletons began to appear.
“A prankster diver (or a group of them) had set up scenes of plastic skeletons along the bottom of Louise: one on a bike, another fixing an old fuse box, another dressed as a pirate aboard a sunken boat. A mannequin with eyelashes, a frizzy wig, and a fish tail appeared beside one of the pipes that formerly pumped out the water — a mermaid.”
Lake Louise has since become home to more odd items, including a lawnmower and various scuttled watercraft, as well as Jason Voorhees, the hockey mask-wearing character from the “Friday the 13th” horror movies, the magazine said.
Broadcaster CBS Minnesota also covered the prop-filled lake here (archived link).
The Minnesota School of Diving, which organises diving trips to various spots in the Cuyana Country State Recreation Area, features descriptions of the props in Louise, as well as in other abandoned mines, on its website, describing them as “attractions” (archived links here and here).
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