Photo: Google Street View
A 2001 Volvo sedan has been sitting stranded on an island in the middle of a lake in Ottawa, in the state of Illinois. It has been there for so long that people have grown used to calling that place "the Volvo Island."
Google Street View can show some strange things. But this one tops them all. The Volvo has been in the photos snapped by camera for Google Street View since 2015. So there have been at least nine years that the car spent there on a tiny island, in the middle of a lake in Ottawa, some 84 miles from Chicago. The stretch of land seems to be just as big as the car. It is a 2001 silver Volvo S80 sedan.
The place has become a tourist attraction over the years. People see the location on Google Maps and set their navigation to take them there. They get out of the car, snap a couple of photos, and upload them to social media.
The location has more than 200 reviews on Google Maps and scores a rating of 4.9 out of 5, which is better than many famous museums or restaurants. One of the reviewers says that is where he proposed to his former girlfriend/current wife and also where his firstborn was conceived.
Another one calls it "a life-changing experience" and claims he is going to take his family there every year as a tradition.
The car even shows on Google Maps Satellite View. But who put the car on the island and left it there for so long? The owner of the island is Scott Mann, who also owns two car repair shops in the area. It was he who parked the Volvo sedan on the island for a fun contest back in 2012. This means that the Volvo has been sitting stranded there for 12 whole years.
Mann wanted the people living in the area to try to guess how the car made it to the small island. The story is simpler than it seems. The lake used to be a mine until it was flooded.
However, Scott eventually had second thoughts about the contest he had planned. Afraid that the bravest in the area would try to reach the car, swimming to it and risking their lives, he gave up the contest idea, as reported by Supercar Blondie. The distance from the shore to the island is short, but the water, which may seem quite shallow at first, is, in fact, 38 feet deep (11.6 meters) and may indeed be dangerous.
But how did the Volvo get there? Before the mine was fully flooded, the small island was actually the end of a peninsula. So the Volvo was just towed to that exact location and left there stranded. The land that connected the shore to the end of the peninsula was eventually excavated out. So the peninsula disappeared, and all that was left was the island that the Volvo has been sitting on.
There was a time when Scott Man reportedly considered making a beach around the Volvo. But sand failed to show up, so the beach plans, just like the contest plans, were also aborted. He also considered turning the place into an advertising space for his car repair shops. But then again, that would kill the mystery of the stranded Volvo.
The place has become a tourist attraction over the years. People see the location on Google Maps and set their navigation to take them there. They get out of the car, snap a couple of photos, and upload them to social media.
The location has more than 200 reviews on Google Maps and scores a rating of 4.9 out of 5, which is better than many famous museums or restaurants. One of the reviewers says that is where he proposed to his former girlfriend/current wife and also where his firstborn was conceived.
Another one calls it "a life-changing experience" and claims he is going to take his family there every year as a tradition.
The car even shows on Google Maps Satellite View. But who put the car on the island and left it there for so long? The owner of the island is Scott Mann, who also owns two car repair shops in the area. It was he who parked the Volvo sedan on the island for a fun contest back in 2012. This means that the Volvo has been sitting stranded there for 12 whole years.
Mann wanted the people living in the area to try to guess how the car made it to the small island. The story is simpler than it seems. The lake used to be a mine until it was flooded.
However, Scott eventually had second thoughts about the contest he had planned. Afraid that the bravest in the area would try to reach the car, swimming to it and risking their lives, he gave up the contest idea, as reported by Supercar Blondie. The distance from the shore to the island is short, but the water, which may seem quite shallow at first, is, in fact, 38 feet deep (11.6 meters) and may indeed be dangerous.
But how did the Volvo get there? Before the mine was fully flooded, the small island was actually the end of a peninsula. So the Volvo was just towed to that exact location and left there stranded. The land that connected the shore to the end of the peninsula was eventually excavated out. So the peninsula disappeared, and all that was left was the island that the Volvo has been sitting on.
There was a time when Scott Man reportedly considered making a beach around the Volvo. But sand failed to show up, so the beach plans, just like the contest plans, were also aborted. He also considered turning the place into an advertising space for his car repair shops. But then again, that would kill the mystery of the stranded Volvo.
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