Central City: 1898. Rufus Owens secretly builds a submarine out of wood and gives it a metal skin. At Missouri Lake, he puts three tons of rock inside for ballast. The Nautilus is launched and promptly sinks. As Owens has no way to raise the submarine, it stays underwater and becomes a legend.
Cut to January, 1944. Central City is abuzz with excitement. The whole town gathers on the snowy lakeshore. As the high school band plays “Columbia, Gem of the Ocean,” the Central City sub is winched out of the muck, and inspection shows it seems to have no means of propulsion, which opens up a new mystery: why did Rufus Owens build and launch a submarine high in the mountains, a thousand miles from the ocean? To this day, nobody really knows. But you can see the remains of the Nautilus in the Gilpin History Museum.
About Colorado Postcards
Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado.
