Iowa State University said that the ongoing excavation of Lake LaVerne has uncovered many items while digging into Iowa State history one bucketload at a time: bicycles, bowling balls, golf balls and plenty of vintage pop bottles. Last week, the first big bang of a discovery was pulled onto the lake’s banks – a cannon.

“ We believe we found a historic cannon in Lake LaVerne and it could represent a significant part of Ames history ,” said Claire Vorthmann , facilities construction manager. “ This lake is really important to the university and that makes this work special. Going down one layer at a time is exciting and we look forward to finding more things.”