1974 Chevy Camaro Z/28 Found At The Bottom Of A Maine Lake

Caecey Killian May 7, 2026 3 min read 0

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We’ve covered plenty of barn finds and field rescues over the years, but this one hits different. GM Authority flagged a story out of Maine recently, and we couldn’t scroll past it: a 1974 Chevy Camaro Z/28 was found sitting on the bottom of Sebago Lake, and nobody knows how it got there.

Jason Smith, an underwater enthusiast who explores Maine’s lakes using drone technology, made the discovery. Smith had gone back to check on a snowmobile he’d previously found when a dark shape caught his attention in the distance. He moved in for a closer look, and there it was: a 1974 Chevy Camaro Z/28 on the lakebed, roughly 55 feet down in a channel between Frye Island and the mainland.

That stretch of water sees heavy boat traffic. Nobody knows how long the car has been sitting down there.

How Did The 1974 Chevy Camaro Z/28 End Up In Sebago Lake?

Investigators from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office took over after the discovery. Detectives coordinated with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to reconstruct the full VIN from what remained. They are now searching historical records to track down the original owner.

A few theories have come up. Investigators ruled out the ferry quickly. A car sliding off the Frye Island ferry would have generated a report at the time. The more likely explanation is that the Camaro broke through the ice during a Maine winter at some point over the past five decades and went straight down.

It’s not a stretch. A second-gen Camaro Z/28 weighs around 3,400 pounds. Ice that looks solid in November doesn’t always hold in March.

What Did Salvage Crews Find When They Pulled It Out?

Decades of submersion had gutted the structure. The 1974 Chevy Camaro Z/28 essentially fell apart during the salvage operation. Crews recovered very little physical evidence as a result. Investigators are now leaning on records and potential eyewitness accounts to fill in the gaps.

The 1974 model year carries some weight in Z/28 history. GM dropped the Z/28 package after that year, making it the last of the original run before the nameplate came back for 1977. Whether this car was a matching-numbers example or a stripped shell, that answer likely went down with it.

Someone drove that 1974 Chevy Camaro Z/28 off a dealer lot fifty years ago. It turned up at the bottom of a lake in Maine. Somewhere between those two points is a story worth knowing, and investigators are still working to find it.

And if second-gen Camaros are your thing, go check out Project Street Reaper. We’ve got a 1976 Camaro tearing through a full build series, and it’s just getting started.

AboutCaecey Killian

Caecey Killian covers builds, installs, and product features for Car Junkie Magazine. He has spent years on the floor of the garage chasing horsepower across SBC, LS, and modern muscle platforms, and that shop time runs through every article he writes. His current CJM project is Project Street Reaper, a 1976 Camaro built around a fresh SBC 350. He is also known for Project Mighty Mouse, a 1977 Chevy Nova running a 1962 small-journal 327 SBC, with build coverage published across multiple online automotive magazines. His media background spans long-form build documentation, install coverage, and product features across the magazine and the Car Junkie Magazine YouTube channel. He writes the way he wrenches: specific, honest about the mistakes, and grounded in real garage work.