In 1876, the steamboat Chestatee mysteriously sank after having been the first steam-powered boat built and operated on the Chestatee River.On Friday, the historic diving bell that was tethered to the sunken steamboat and rested on the river’s bottom for more than 100 years made its home at the new Chestatee River Diving Bell Pavilion at Hancock Park in downtown Dahlonega.Described as a “rare artifact” and “historic treasure,” the diving bell was initially brought to Northeast Georgia by P.H. Loud, a businessman who came to the Appalachia region in search of gold. Loud’s use of the diving bell was the only known attempt to use that type of diving technology east of the Mississippi River. After a gold prospector convinced property foreman James Jones to pull the “iron stack” out of the Chestatee River in the 1980s, the mystery of the diving bell was revealed.