Lee Wood was enjoying his lunch at the little beach below Goodspeed Opera House on the Connecticut River some weeks ago when he noticed something unusual in the sand. “It didn’t look natural,” said the East Haddam resident, a retired shop teacher. “It looked like old iron.”

Wood is a dedicated beachcomber. Only a month before on the Haddam side, he found a curious looking object that turned out to be a sounding lead, which sailors used to test the depth of the water under their keels. Sensing another treasure, he wasted no time getting a stick to use as a makeshift shovel. But it was tough going. The more he dug, the more he seemed to uncover. Whatever it was, it just kept going. When Wood had exposed all of it, he was looking at something 12-feet long and 3 feet wide, weighing 1,000 pounds or more. Continue reading “River finds” →