In 1968 a couple guys started digging a hole in a cornfield along the Missouri River... and found an old steamboat.
The Bertrand sank after preemptively reenacting the Titanic story with a dead tree on April 1, 1865 about 30 miles up river from Omaha. It was hauling merchandise to the gold fields in Montana, including a large shipment of mercury. I believe the people that found it were searching for that mercury.
It seems that most of the mercury was recovered soon after the sinking. Enough other cargo, including these cannon balls, lay forgotten underground after the river shifted to fill a museum at the DeSoto Bend Nature Preserve.
The story is more interesting than the photo.
There are a few more photos here.
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