Posted by Bob Saxton on December 13, 19103 at 14:29:21:
Can anyone tell me if there are ways to estimate how long oak planking or iron artifacts have been submerged in Lake Erie waters. I often find very well worn pieces of oak, as well as iron artifacts heavily encrusted with concretion on the beach. I also find a considerable amount of coal, which I am suspecting is washing out of the wreck of the Marquette and Bessemer #2 carferry that disappeared in Dec. 1909, and wonder if there is any way to tell if the coal was mined that long ago.