There's a new tourist attraction in the small Iron Range town of Gilbert. But few will ever see it. Somewhere under the water of Gilbert's Lake Ore-Be-Gone are two old mining rail cars, which were dropped in the lake last week. It was no accident. The cars give scuba divers something new to explore in the long retired mine pit, which is already known for it's incredibly clear water.

	Divers prepare to lower a speeder into Lake Ore-Be-Gone. View the slideshow to see more images. (MPR Photo/Bob Kelleher)

What's orange and brown and 40 feet down? They're called speeders; self propelled rail cars intended to carry maybe half a dozen iron miners. A pair of rusty and long retired speeders are now sleeping with the fishes on the bottom of Lake Ore-Be-Gone.

Bill Hallin is the former owner of a local diving supply shop, Alpine Enterprises. He says the beat up old speeders aren't some kind of environmental hazard.

"You can't just take and put something, dump it in the lake, you know, full of oil," says Hallin. "So, it's all cleaned up, and got the OK from the DNR, EPA, and everything."

The speeders went down last Thursday, but it wasn't easy to do. Sinking two-ton rail cars takes an army of volunteers; a donated crane and a couple of big bags filled with air. One speeder is wrapped between mattress-sized grey air bags. They puff out like cheeks on a chipmunk.

Bill Hallin describes the process. "They're going to lift this speeder out into the lake. And then," he continues, "we have a couple of big lift bags on each side. And we're going to float the speeder then, over to a dive site."

The old rail car meets the water and sinks to the roof with barely a splash. The air bags hold the speeder just at the surface, as a small boat gives it a tow along the Ore-Be-Gone shoreline.

Rick Hocevar watches it pass from the end of a nearby dock. He's an avid diver, and the driving force behind today's event. Hocevar says underwater stuff is a big attraction. Old vehicles draw both fish and scuba divers.

Hocevar explains, "It's done in quarries throughout the country. It's kind of hard to get the people up here to visualize, you know, the potential for it."

One quarry, in Pennsylvania gets 300-thousand divers a year. Dutch Springs quarry hides old boats, airplanes, a tanker truck, a fire truck, and a huge retired military helicopter.

"One quarry that has about sixty items down," Hocevar explains. There's even a sunken outhouse he says. "People like to have their pictures taken, sitting on the satellite, under water."

Bathtubs are apparently popular too. There's a long list of things Hocevar would like to drop into Lake Ore-Be-Gone

He says, "I have a gentleman that has a bussing firm, up in Babbitt. He's going to give us a small bus fuselage to put down." Hocevar continues, "that's our next project to work on."

A mining company has donated a couple of big processing pumps to sink to the bottom.

"I've got another person checking on a plane fuselage for us," Hocevar adds.

There's a serious side to the underwater junkyard. Hocevar says it gives area rescue divers a chance to practice victim recovery. You never know when an airplane's going to plunge into a flooded mine pit. Or a bus. Or an old rusty mining car.

Dutch Springs Quarry, Bethlehem, PA