Volvo spotted marooned on tiny island on Google Maps in baffling discovery
It can be quite an amusing pastime to scroll around Google Maps and see what strange things the cameras have picked up. But some eagle-eyed spotters have come across a rather curious find.
On a miniature rocky island, in the middle of a lake near Chicago, Illinois, there lies a peculiar sight. Perched atop the rocks in the middle of the water sits an old Volvo saloon.
The silver saloon has been stuck on the rocks for at least eight years, having shown up on Google Street View since 2015. The marooned car also appears on satellite images from Google Maps.
READ MORE: 'I gave up everything to move to my dream town but was forced to move out'
As such, the island on which the car perches has been named 'Volvo Island' on Google Maps. The island lies between Ottawa and Marseilles in Illinois, around 80 miles from Chicago.
Walking tracker one of 12 apps banned by Google as users urged to delete them
The discovery was first made by online sleuth Kevin Rault. The car appears to have been abandoned on the tiny patch of rocky land.
The 2001 Volvo S80 has been on the Island for at least eight years (Jam Press)With water surrounding the car on all sides, there seems to be no way of retrieving the vehicle. The area is surrounded by lush green vegetation and trees with several busy routes running past it.
The car is believed to be a 2001 Volvo S80 model sitting on the artificial island on an abandoned strip of mine which has been flooded with around 40 feet of standing water.
Both the island and the surrounding lake are privately owned property, belonging to Ottawa resident Scott Mann, who owns two local car repair shops. Mr Mann's office manager Tiffany Warren told Ottawa's The Times that her boss "has a lot of crazy ideas".
But what does this have to do with a Volvo stranded on a tiny island? Well, it turns out Mr Mann initially left the Volvo stranded in the middle of the flooded mine with the idea of holding a contest to see if people could guess how it got there.
The Volvo sits on the tiny island in a former mine which was flooded with almost 40ft of water (Jam Press)However, after realising that the contest could actually tempt people to try and explore the dangerous flooded mine, Mr Mann had second thoughts. Ms Warren shared some more details about the land on which the Volvo sits.
The land was once a peninsula, sticking out into the water. As such, the car was simply towed out to the end of it before the land bridge was excavated out.
If you look closely at the satellite images you can see the remains of land extending out under the water where it's shallower. Ms Warren explained: "Because that area was strip-mined there was a finger of land through the water.
"The car was towed out to that little island. Then we used a big excavator to dig the dirt away from the car to make it look more like an island."
At the time of construction, Ms Warren said Mr Mann was considering covering the island with sand to make it look like a beach. However, it appears sand was either never put down or it all eroded as there's nothing really beach-like about the images on Google Maps.
Kyrie Irving secures Dallas Mavericks trade as Brooklyn Nets receive huge offer
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
