Boy Unearths a Lost Historical Relic after Discovering Strange Tracks

While walking by Lake Kurtna Matasjarv in Estonia, a local boy named Kasper spotted strange tracks leading into the water. They didn’t appear to be leading anywhere—the lake was too small to allow for boating or other activities—and besides, they were in the middle of nowhere. The boy realized that there was no reason for those tracks to be there. The mystery piqued his interest.

Kasper had been making an attempt to gain a better understanding of the forest. He made a quick glance down the left path before deciding on the right. One was packed with nature-loving hikers. The other was a shamble of a path, a less-beaten track.

The young man, anxious to explore the Estonian wilds, followed the long-abandoned path. He spotted unusual markings in uneven earth as he walked further and further out. It wasn’t long before he came across Lake Kurtna Matasjarv, where he would discover a mysterious pair of tracks leading into the water.

After tracing the lake’s rippling shore, Kasper spotted curious markings in the fern-covered ground. They were unlike anything he’d seen in his previous expeditions. They seemed to come from the lake and lead into the forest, or vice-versa.

This wasn’t the first time Kasper had walked around Lake Kurtna Matasjarv. He had walked this path a few times before. It was strange that he’d only just discovered these markings now. He was interested to see where they led. And so, he followed them.

Lying next to the weird markings by the shore of the lake was a rope. What did a rope have to do with these weird tracks? Kasper assumed that it must have been for the anchor of a boat, but there were no boats for miles around. As he scraped the mud away, his young mind raced with possibilities.

His parents returned to the spot where their son had discovered the markings and the rope. They followed the shamble of a path until they reached the spot. They were the second people to see it, and they were just as baffled as Kasper.

Kasper’s parents cleared away what they could around the rope. They couldn’t figure out what the weird tracks on the ground meant or what the rope could be attached to at the shoreside. They couldn’t give their son an answer. It was a puzzle.

The discovery could not be kept a secret. It didn’t take long for the community to hear about the strange anomaly discovered out in the swamp by the lake. Soon, onlookers were coming by to see the mystery for themselves. They huddled by the shore and made their guesses.

Hikers from all over took turns by the shore to pull the rope out of the mud. A tug of war began: on one side were the onlookers, on the other was the mystery. Still, the rope would not give. No matter how much mud they cleared away, the rope went deeper still.

The authorities had formed a ring around the area. Meanwhile, a group of men examined the peculiar tracks that Kasper had initially noticed that led out into the trees. They thought that they might offer some sort of clue. 

After clearing away so much mud, the hikers finally hit something solid. It had a smooth surface and was obviously artificial. It looked to be a vehicle of some kind, an old boat or a car. Or it could have been some kind of hidden entrance. Still, the rope was further buried.

Whatever was buried under the mud didn’t seem to look like a boat. But the tracks covered up by years of overgrowth were beginning to make sense as markings on the object, still coated in a thick slime, became visible to the eye.

Their shovels’ usefulness had reached their limit. If they were to extract whatever was under the surface of the lake, they’d need to up their game significantly—and that meant bringing heavy machinery through the forest and the swamp.

After much discussion and coordination, the heavy machines were called in, as well as expert diggers. The wheels churned over mulch and leaves as the driver navigated through narrow openings left by trees.

The folks standing around Lake Kurtna Matasjarv were told to clear the area as something came through the forest and the trees. The authorities had dispatched some big machinery to assist, and here it was at last. The noise of a massive bulldozer competed with the crowd’s excited chatter.

Of course, the setup took a long time. Many threads of rope had to be attached to distribute the tension. The workers just hoped that what they had would be enough in terms of pulling power. Some in the crowd certainly didn’t think so.

The townsfolk had a few spare ropes hanging around, but only one vehicle pulling. While the workers went back to their machine to reorganize, some in the crowd were devising their own strategy. They broke off and raced back into town, returning to Lake Kurtna Matasjarv with their trucks and cars.

Even after everyone had dashed back to their homes to fetch ropes, chains, shovels, or steel cables—Kasper still wanted to help. He was the one who discovered the rope, after all. The young boy lent his strength to pull out this massive, 30-ton object.

Chains, machines, and muscles worked together in accord. With every fiber of their being, they heaved. The massive object burst out of the mud as grunts, and strained shouts filled the air. They were doing it!

To those who’d been paying attention, it would have been obvious what the massive object was ever since the reveal of the hatch. But how did a tank end up buried at the shore of a lake? What was it doing all the way out in the forest? The mystery continued.

When the tank pierced the surface, a collective gasp was heard. Slowly emerging from the shadows, the algae-covered monster spewed out murky water from its innards. While they were busy dragging it to dry land, they must have wondered what could possibly lay hidden inside.

As the crew washed away the mud, they uncovered an all-too-familiar white emblem, something from World War II. The tank had been sitting on the edge of this lake for a very long time. Had it not been for chance, it could have been there for much longer.

Imagine it: everyone falling silent after a grueling eight hours fighting the mud and water, then suddenly, it appears—a World War II tank. They’d uncovered a piece of Estonian history lying deep beneath the surface of Lake Kurtna Matasjarv.

After the shock of discovering a tank had worn off, everyone was left with one question: how did a World War II tank get buried in Lake Kurtna Matasjarv? It seemed to have been left in the middle of nowhere. 

The crowds were warned away from the tank by the authorities, who realized that any ammunition inside could still be live. It would have the capacity to explode at any time, which would put everyone in danger if one wrong move was made.

The extraction was put on hold until the authorities were sure that they weren’t walking blindly into a dangerous situation. Once again, the experts were called in to extract any live ammunition from inside the tank.

It took two weeks to completely clear the tank of water. This meant carefully extracting the water inside and clearing away all the muck, all the while avoiding anything that might look like it could explode.

They determined that the object was, in fact, a Soviet-built T34/76A war tank, a vehicle that was heavily deployed by the Soviets in the battle against the Germans. Despite having been submerged for decades, it was in excellent shape.

Besides some cosmetic scuffing and rust, the Russian army tank was still in fantastic shape. The authorities were astounded to discover that the tank was in such good condition that it would even be able to be restored with a little work.

A staggering 116 rounds of ammo were discovered inside, astonishing the expert curators from the nearby Gorodenko Museum. After a little cleaning and maintenance, they discovered that the ancient diesel engine still worked after all those years too.

As it turns out, several skirmishes took place on the Eastern Estonia Narva front. A large number of soldiers and tanks passed through the swampy marshlands around Lake Kurtna Matasjarv. Over 100,000 soldiers died fighting in battle, and more than 300,000 were injured.

During the Battle of the Blue Mountains in 1944, German soldiers captured the Soviet Trophy Tank—the very same that had been hidden in the mud for over 50 years. The curators must have been surprised to learn that during World War II, the tank served both the Russian and German sides.

The curators explain that German troops began to withdraw from the Narva front on September 19, 1944. At some point during the withdrawal, the Germans began to retreat slowly along the Narva front line, and they decided to abandon the war tank there.

For decades, the tank sat in a watery tomb stocked full of ammunition. That is until a curious boy in the Estonian wilds took the less-beaten track. It’s quite a wild story. Just think—the next time you go out walking, if you have your eyes open, you too could stumble upon a lost piece of the past.