A giant underwater crucifix with the figure of Jesus Christ attached to it drew hundreds out to a frozen Lake Michigan on Saturday with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the rare spectacle.
For decades the 11-foot marble statue has been at the bottom of the lake, off the shore of the town of Petoskey, in Northern Michigan, The Daily Mail reported. The last time it was seen was in 2015 when a crowd of 2,021 people braved frigid temperatures to see it.
Since then poor weather conditions have made it impossible for people to see the giant crucifix but that all changed on Saturday when workers cut a hole through the frozen lake to give spectators a sight of the submerged statue of Jesus Christ, WPBN noted.
How the giant crucifix came to lay at the bottom of a lake is a story dating back to the 1950s. According to Inside Edition, a grieving family commissioned the statue as a way to memorize a 15-year-old who was killed in a farm accident near Bad Axe in 1956. The religious symbol was ordered from Italy for $2,500 but was damaged during shipment and refused by the boy’s family.
The statue of Jesus Christ was put up for sale and eventually purchased by a diving club, which sank it to the bottom of Lake Michigan in remembrance of a fellow diver who drowned in a nearby lake. In 1985, the statue was moved closer to shore and the first public viewing was held a year later.
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