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Oswego has a four-day festival every year during the last full weekend in July called Harborfest. Most people remember the 1993 Harborfest as the year “Today Show” Weatherman Willard Scott did his morning weather reports from Oswego, but most local divers remember it as the year they got a new local shipwreck.
During Harborfest ’93, Northwest winds were kicking up eight-foot waves on Lake Ontario. A 32-foot houseboat was out on the lake that day. The little, calm-water vessel didn’t stand a chance, and it foundered in 32 feet of water just west of Oswego Harbor. The two men aboard were rescued by the Coast Guard.
During the first winter the vessel was submerged, the cabin was swept away by ice and now lies in pieces to the east. All that remains is the hull and outside railing. The houseboat is the new home of plenty of bass and perch.
The real name of the vessel is all but forgotten. Local divers began referring to it as the “Harborfest Houseboat.” The name stuck after it appeared in a newspaper’s trivia article in 1996.
