The other boot -- retrieved this month by a recreational scuba diver -- helped end a mystery that has spurred ghost stories and juvenile pranks on the Ely lake. The St. Louis County Sheriff's Office confirmed Tuesday that bones found with the boot belonged to Simonson, who was 51 when he disappeared.
Onetime neighbors said Simonson was a bachelor who once played professional basketball in Michigan.
The night in November 1953 when Simonson was last seen was unusually warm. He took in a movie before heading out onto the cold, deep water in his 16-foot boat. He never returned.
According to newspaper accounts, his mother reported him missing, and sheriff's deputies found his car with the keys in it at the family cabin. Authorities noticed nothing unusual in the cabin, but fresh coffee grounds were found in a pot.
About 2 miles away, Simonson's boat was found on shore with several holes in it, probably from rocks along shore. Dragging operations turned up nothing, and Simonson's story became fodder for local lore.
Emily Wahlberg, owner of Burntside Heritage Tours, said the story of Simonson's eerie disappearance is a fixture in her pontoon-boat tours. Legend has it that he was illegally net fishing that night. "I used to tell them it was theorized he was entangled in the net and went down," she said.
When she was young, Wahlberg and other kids made the Simonson tale part of their swimming excursions at Burntside. "Someone would always dive under water and grab someone, and everyone would say 'Marshall Simonson,' " Wahlberg said.
Bob Koschak was scuba diving to cool off when he stumbled on the remains. "When I got to 40 feet, I saw the leg bones and the arm bones and a leather boot," he said. "And all of it was very old; you could tell how old it was."
He returned to the site a week later with two other divers and the sheriff. "I guessed it was there 50 years, so I knew one week wouldn't matter," Koschak said.
While the sheriff was having the bones analyzed, Koschak began talking to some of the older people in town who remembered Simonson.
That research "was more fun than finding the bones even, because the old people were quite excited about it," he said.
The tests supported what longtime Ely residents suspected: It was Simonson.
But one mystery remained. How did one boot end up in the boat while the other remained on Simonson? Koschak's research provided the answer: "He had a habit of not lacing his boots, as I understand it."
Turns out, Koschak's mother lived near the Simonsons. Since he has no surviving relatives, neighbors said they hope to cremate the remains, and Koschak has volunteered to return them to where they were found.
"That's a nice end to it, huh?" he said. "He's been there that long. He's probably used to it."
Ghost Story Legend Laid to Rest
ELY, MINN. -- [AP] A lone boot found in a damaged boat long held the only clue to Marshall (Moe) Simonson's disappearance 46 years ago on Burntside Lake.
[MStPS-T headline: Scuba Diver Finds Remains of Man who Inspired Ghost Stories]
[Source: Minn. St Paul Star-Tribune / MN - July 29 1999]
