Diver dies while exploring shipwreck in Lake Superior

Split Rock Lighthouse
The Lake County Sheriff's Office said 42-year-old Aaron Timmerman of New Hope was diving with a group Saturday afternoon at the Madeira Shipwreck at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.
Andrew Krueger | Duluth News Tribune via AP file

Updated: 7:13 p.m. | Posted: 8:09 a.m.

A diver from the Twin Cities has died while exploring a shipwreck in Lake Superior off the shores of northeastern Minnesota.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office said Aaron Timmerman, 42, of New Hope was diving with a group Saturday afternoon at the Madeira shipwreck at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.

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Witnesses saw him surface and call for help, but no one was able to get to him before he went back under the water. Two people in his group pulled Timmerman from the bottom of the lake. Other divers brought him to shore and started CPR.

An air ambulance crew took Timmerman to nearby Gooseberry Falls State Park, where the Two Harbors Fire Department was maintaining a helicopter landing zone. Staff there pronounced him dead just after 2 p.m.

The sheriff's office said Monday the incident is still under investigation, and the medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

The Madeira went down in a storm on Lake Superior in 1905. The shipwreck is off the shore of Split Rock State Park.

The Associated Press contributed reporting for this story.