Unkwon Object
 

Came across this cast iron object off a small island south of Wolfeboro bay in about 8 feet of water 40 feet from shore. It's about 2 feet long and round in shape. Any ideas?

Woodstove?

It's from the early 20th century era, it was a device you put on your keyring to help prevent you from losing your keys.

As boating became more popular on the lake, people realized that while they rarely misplaced their keys, the device was not very buoyant (though it was able to be easily retrieved from the water with a 30lb magnet) and so they died in popularity.

If you brush away some of the rust you may still be able to see an inscription like "Niagara Falls, New York" or "I (heart) Winnipesaukee", as they were popular tourist souvenir items.

Maybe a small mooring 'Bollard'. That thingy bolted on a dock/peir....or on the deck of a barge ....serving as a big cleat that one would drop an eye spliced dock line over when docking.

Picture the Mount Washington docking at Wolfeboro. :look: NB

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollard

The stove was a thought I had but there is no hole on the top for a stove pipe - unless it was a on the facing side that is now rusted away - hmmm?

Could be. I found a woodstove fragment at a private Wolfeboro beach.

Underwater, it wouldn't be difficult to lift from the lake bottom. It looks like there are chains on each end though. Were there any other artifacts found nearby that could point to what it is?

A woodstove left unattended in a bob house could have melted through the ice. Or a bob house abandoned at Ice-Out may have left this as the only part existing.

I'm going with wood stove
 

I did a 100 foot search pattern around the area of the object in hopes of finding parts of a boat - not a thing. So the wood stove theory seems the best guess. Could never raise it - just touching it causes it to fall apart.