Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
Seneca Lake Mysteries, the podcast exploring
the unusual, strange, and unexplained on New
York's largest finger lake. Thanks as always
for listening, and if you haven't done so yet,
please subscribe to the podcast and be sure to
visit SenecaLakeMysteries .com and subscribe
on the website as well so you don't miss any
news or updates. Now this episode is going to
be comparatively short and sweet. I've got three
old timey stories this time around. First up
is a story of some enterprising young men who
back in 1939 built an underwater helmet breathing
contraption to explore underneath the waters
of Seneca Lake. Check the description of this
podcast for a link to a photograph. of one of
the youngsters wearing this crazy helmet invention.
Next up is a story about an albino trout that
was pulled from Seneca Lake by some local fishermen
back in 1947, two years before the iconic Seneca
white deer were first reported on the grounds
of the Seneca Army Depot. And last up, truly
one of my favorite legends surrounding Seneca
Lake from back in the late 1800s. It's the...
strange and wild tale of a real locomotive engine
that was called locomotive 13 before giving the
nickname sam patch i do have a soft spot for
old stories of mysterious trains that were told
and retold during the railway era of america
and this is a good one so i hope you enjoy it
as much as i did and also check the description
i will be putting a photograph of this locomotive
sam patch in a link in the description also in
the next week i'll be posting some cool stuff
on the website that i've been promising for a
while so make sure you're subscribed on the website
so you don't miss it and in the coming weeks
i'll be making some decisions and announcements
about the future of seneca lake mysteries and
the podcast now when i started the podcast i
really didn't have a plan on how long it would
go. But honestly, I never really planned for
it to run indefinitely. And as I mentioned in
probably episode one, I've been working on a
book entitled Seneca Lake Mysteries, covering
the kinds of stories you've heard on the podcast,
plus a lot more. And recently, I've been putting
more of my energy into finally completing the
book, which does end up taking some of my focus
away from the podcast. Right now, I'm really
not sure what I'll do, whether I'll put the podcast
on hiatus or if I'll continue the podcast three
times a month as usual or whatever. There are
still lots of stories I want to cover on the
podcast and guests I want to speak with as well.
But there's also the fact that I don't want to
tell all the stories from the book on the podcast.
I'm still sorting it out and working to feel
out what my next steps will be. But in the meantime,
the podcast is still here and I'm grateful to
each and every one of you who've been listening
and supporting Seneca Lake Mysteries. So stay
tuned as the Seneca Lake Mysteries project evolves
and expands and keep sharing and sending your
feedback and leaving reviews and likes and comments.
I appreciate it all. So without further ado.
Let's get into it. So this next story is another
wild one. I love it. It's from the Elmira New
York Star Gazette. It was published on July 21st,
1939. And it's a story of three youths from Elmira,
New York. who were very curious about the Seneca
drums phenomenon, Seneca Lake serpent, and the
fact that Seneca Lake had this abundant supply
of lake trout. And even, you know, to this day,
Geneva claims the title the lake trout capital
of the world. So this was back in July of 1939,
and this enterprising trio of young men went
to... Some pretty crazy lengths to explore the
lake firsthand. So Dan Lewis, Bob Maloney, and
Charlie Scholz constructed a 70 -pound diving
helmet so they could get a better look underneath
the surface of Seneca Lake. Now, the top of the
helmet was made from a salvaged metal water heater.
two large iron rings, a pane of glass, a significant
amount of lead, two pieces of garden hose for
shoulder padding, a bicycle pump, and a 35 -foot
length of rubber tubing. So the boys put together
this contraption, took it over to Fir Tree Point,
which is near Rock Stream on the west shore of
Seneca Lake. And took it for a test run. So the
way it worked, one of the young men was stationed
on shore. And his job was to use the bicycle
pump and pump a continuous supply of fresh air
to his pal who was wearing this diving helmet.
So this kid would put this lead and iron weighted
rig over his head. resting the full weight of
it, over 70 pounds, about the weight of a small
couch, onto his shoulders. And then he would
hold onto it. They had a guide rope. He would
hold onto a guide rope and then wade into the
water until it got deeper and deeper. And he
would go in to where it was generally around
10 feet in depth. And while underwater, they
discovered that bubbles of air would violently
release from the bottom of the helmet and the
lake water would fill the lower portion of this
giant heavy helmet contraption, which would reach
the middle of the kid's neck. So they quickly
realized that the window in the helmet would
get steamed up, which would prevent him from
seeing clearly the... underwater world of Seneca
Lake. So to defog the glass, the kid wearing
the helmet would simply take in a mouthful of
lake water and spew it onto the glass. So he's
underwater with the water up to his neck and
looking out through this glass helmet. It was
actually, it looks like it was Dan Lewis was
the kid who was underwater, and he talked about
how the underwater scenes would be magnified
when he saw them through the helmet's window
and gave him a very clear view of everything
in Seneca's depths. I also need to mention that
this young man clearly had little or no fear
of drowning as he... You know, he agreed to put
this giant helmet on his head and climb into
the lake while the helmet filled with water.
So it looked like this whole helmet contraption
worked. So these boys were not only motivated
to do this themselves, but they also spoke to
the reporter about plans to create their own
company and manufacture this diving system for
others. Claimed at the time they had set up some
tentative deals with buyers, but then they discovered
that it wasn't easy to salvage a lot of these
metal water heater tops, which were very scarce.
So while they said they could easily produce
more of the helmets in a short amount of time,
they said they could only do that if the buyers
would supply their own water heaters. And Dan,
Bob, and Charlie even had a potential name for
their underwater breathing helmet manufacturing
business, which would have been Peekaboo Diving
Corporation. Now, unfortunately, this brave young
trio never solved the mysteries of the Lake Serpent
or the Seneca drums, and they weren't able to.
map out the lake trout hot spots around the lake,
but at least none of them drowned. So if you're
a listener of this podcast, you know about the
Seneca white deer, which live at the Seneca Army
Depot that were discovered in 1949 living on
the base. But there's another story about another
very unusual white animal that was found in Seneca
Lake two years prior to the discovery, quote
unquote, discovery of the Seneca white deer.
So I'm going to go to a story from the Elmira
Star Gazette from June 25th, 1947. And the headline
is... albino trout unique catch from Seneca.
So what happened is a gentleman named Joseph
Martin was fishing off of hem rods with another
gentleman named Robert Barteen. They were both
from Watkins Glen, and they pulled into their
boat an albino trout that glistened in the June
sunlight. And the article goes on to say, that
Martin's catch was regarded as very unique in
the history of Seneca Lake for as long as anyone
could remember that no one had ever caught a
pure white trout in Seneca Lake. It goes on to
explain that the fish at first glance is pure
white with pink eyes. But if you look closer
at it, it had gills and scales that were pure
silver. The fish was three and a half pounds
and 22 inches long. And Mr. Martin and Mr. Barteen
said that when they pulled it into the boat,
they were both so startled that they nearly fell
out of the boat. Now, here's what's interesting
from there. That albino trout was put on exhibition
in Watkins Glen. And according to the article,
hundreds of people, including many tourists and
area farmers, came by to view this strange specimen.
And of course, in most cases where someone finds
an anomalous animal, people will put forth theories.
As to where the animal came from. So in this
article, it says that the theory at the time
was that there were some eggs gathered by the
New York State Department of Conservation hatching
grounds. They had a hatching grounds off of Peach
Orchard Point on the East Seneca Lake shore.
And among these eggs that they gathered. 400
silver fingerlings were born and they said that
these fingerlings unfortunately became the prey
of fish hawks which would make sense because
they were certainly brighter and whiter and easier
for a hawk to spot from up on high and out of
those 400 silver fingerlings almost all of them
were eaten by fish hawks except for 40 of them.
And supposedly those 40 pure silver baby albino
lake trout were taken and placed in 1942 in the
Cayuga Lake outlet. And the article also notes
that no reports of a white trout being caught
in Cayuga Lake. were known and that this was
the first and only time that an albino trout
was taken from Seneca Lake. Now, I did a little
bit of further research and I couldn't find any
other articles or stories or mentions of this
exhibition that took place of the albino trout
where hundreds of people came by to look at it.
And of course, at this point, it's 78 years ago.
But still, if there's anyone out there who knows
about this, who has heard about this story, who
knows about this exhibition of the white trout,
I'd love to hear from you. Let me know. And if
anyone out there has ever seen one of these albino
trout in the lake or any other strange white
animals around the Seneca Lake area, drop me
a line and let me know as well. So I know I often
say this is one of my favorite stories, but this
really is one of my favorite stories. It's going
to be an old -time one. We're going to go back
to the late 1800s. It's one of the more colorful
tales in Seneca Lake history, and it's about
a locomotive named Locomotive No. 13. But that
locomotive also had another nickname, which we'll
get to in a little bit. It had a long... Weird
history of strange coincidences, odd accidents,
leading some people of the time to believe that
it was either cursed or that the locomotive somehow
had a mind of its own. So let's go back to 1873.
The Fallbrook Coal Company, which mined coal
and operated a railroad between Blossburg, Pennsylvania
and Watkins Glen. ordered a new freight locomotive,
which was delivered to them from eastern New
York State at the Schenectady Locomotive Works.
It was the 13th locomotive placed into service
by the Fallbrook Railway. So it was originally
known as simply Number 13. But then on August
6, 1873, Number 13 became something... More than
just your average freight train after it was
baptized in the waters of Seneca Lake. So locomotive
number 13 was working along the shore of Watkins
Glen on a double track coal trestle facing the
lake. Now a coal trestle is, you know, railroad
tracks that sort of look like a ramp that they
would move cars full of coal onto. canal boats
which would then transport the coal to points
north and beyond. So number 13 was moving coal
cars and attempted to change tracks when it was
violently bumped by some other coal cars that
had rolled down the slope on one end of the trestle.
So the impact caused the locomotive's throttle
to become stuck in the open position. And the
engineer panicked. The engineer, whose name was
M .S. Stratton, panicked and jumped out of the
cab. So now this massive steel machine lunged
up the trestle at about 30 miles an hour, crashed
through a timber barrier at the end of the trestle,
and launched into the air about 40 feet above
the lake. The engine astonished. the onlookers
by sailing over two canal boats before it plunged
into Seneca Lake an estimated 80 feet from the
end of the trestle so for weeks an effort was
made to raise the locomotive from the bottom
of the lake where it had not only settled on
the lake bottom there's about in about 50 feet
of water but it also became lodged in about 15
feet of mud or quicksand whatever you want to
call it but finally They managed to pull the
locomotive out, which weighed probably around
50 tons. They pulled it out of the water. They
fully restored it. And it was put back in service
on December 18th, 1873. But the locomotive also
had a new nickname, which was Sam Patch. Now,
it was named after a man who was widely known,
widely renowned in... the 19th century. He was
also known as the Jersey Jumper, the Daring Yankee,
and the Yankee Leaper. He was born in 1799. He
was raised in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and made
a name for himself as America's first famous
daredevil after he jumped from a platform into
the Niagara River at the base of Niagara Falls
in 1829. So for that era, he was the Evel Knievel
or the Johnny Knoxville. So Sam Patch became
a household name over his career, which lasted
about 10 years. He completed numerous dangerous
high jumps all over the Northeast off of factory
walls, bridges, the masts of ships, and raised
platforms above water. But on Friday, the 13th
of November, 1829, Sam Patch would meet his demise
only at age 30 after he jumped 125 feet into
the Genesee River at High Falls right up in Rochester,
New York. So now back to Sam Patch the locomotive.
Just a few weeks after, a month or so after being
placed back in action, Sam Patch the locomotive
jumped the track in Tioga, Pennsylvania. It crashed
through the train station, knocking the building
two feet off of its foundation, and also interrupted
a prayer meeting that was going on in the building,
terrifying all the attendees. Several of the
cars being pulled by Locomotive 13 were wrecked,
and one crew member, who was the boiler operator
on the engine, suffered a broken leg. Interestingly,
Sam Patch came to a halt on the shore of the
Tioga River, which prompted some people to say
that the locomotive was just trying to find its
way back to the water once again. Now, originally,
Sam Patch was a broad gauge train, meaning it
could only fit on tracks between Corning, New
York and Horseheads, New York, transporting...
Lumber, coal, and other products. But in 1879,
it was taken into the shop and altered to become
a standard gauge train. Sam Patch was in the
shop for 13 days and then was put back into service
on the 13th of the month. Then, a year later,
in 1880, Sam Patch did it again. This time...
The engine managed to find its way into the water
for the second time, jumping the rails at the
Seneca Lake outlet in Geneva and plunging into
the Seneca Canal. So yet another recovery effort
was made. They pulled Sam Patch out of the water,
dried off, cleaned up, repaired, and was put
back on the tracks. And then, in that same year,
Sam Patch was pulling duty as... a second header
of a train in Post Creek, New York, which is
north of Corning. And true to form, Sam Patch
jumped the track again, rumbling over the railroad
ties, careening down an embankment, and becoming
half buried in a swampy area of an adjacent field.
Once again, making its way towards the water.
After being pulled from the swamp and fixed up
again, overhauled again, they decided to... forge
and mount a large horseshoe over the pilot over
where the pilot would sit in the engine and for
a while it seemed like Sam Patch's propensity
for jumping the rails had come to an end but
turns out the old locomotive had one more adventure
in it and some years later Sam Patch was passing
through Dresden along Seneca Lake's western shore,
when, to the surprise of probably no one, it
left the track again, barreled through a cemetery,
and knocked over several tombstones for good
measure. And it's interesting to note that that
cemetery is still there in Dresden. It's not
super close to Seneca Lake, but the direction
that sand patch was going when it... rumbled
through the cemetery was in the direction of
Seneca Lake once again. So due to its legendary
history of soaring into Seneca Lake, jumping
the tracks, destroying a train station, interrupting
a prayer meeting, breaking a man's leg, wrecking
a cemetery, and having a proclivity for fresh
water. Sam Patch was finally delegated to yard
-switching duty in its final years of service.
But some folks believed that after its Seneca
Lake baptism, Sam Patch was either cursed or
perhaps trying to find religion. But in any case,
the weird, wild legend of Sam Patch endures to
this day. Well, that's it for this time around.
I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks so much for listening.
And if you have any thoughts on any of the topics
in this episode, please let me know. And remember
to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts
and get over to SenecaLakeMysteries .com and
subscribe to the email list so you don't miss
anything. A new podcast comes out every month
on the sevens. I'll talk to you then.