Lost River - Karst Information Portal

“I don’t remember exactly what month it
was but it was during one of the warm months
of 1974. There were some divers from Indiana
University diving at Harrison Spring and they
discovered a van at the bottom. They called
the State Police and being a trained diver I was
dispatched to the site. Harvey Sloan’s wrecker
service was on the site and they gave me a cable
to be taken down to the van so it could be
hoisted out.
I entered the spring not long before the IU
divers ran low on air and I was soon by myself.
The visibility was not very good but when I got
to the bottom I found the van. It was a VW van
on its top and it had slid down a slope into the
252
A Not Uncommon Event at
Harrison Spring
Interview of Hugh Couch on January 7, 2007
By Aaron Atz
cave slot at the bottom of the wall. I hooked
the wrecker cable onto the van and started
my ascent. Shortly after, I was startled since I
banged into a large overhanging ledge above
me. I further exited without incident.
Once the van was brought to the surface we
soon found out that it was stolen. It was later
written up in the Corydon Democrat.”
According to Steve Maegerlein’s notes, the
van was resting at a depth of 46 feet when it
was recovered.
Note: More often than you would believe,
vehicles have been recovered from Harrison
Spring.
From left to right (clockwise) Stephen Maegerlein, Hugh Couch, and Jim Fishback.