They Accidentally Drained an Entire Lake

On November 20, 1980, an oil drilling operation on Louisiana’s Lake Peigneur went catastrophically wrong. A shallow lake suddenly began draining into a salt mine hidden beneath it. An oil rig vanished. Barges were swallowed. The shoreline collapsed. And then the canal connected to the lake began flowing backward. Somehow, more than 50 miners underground escaped—and no one was killed. This is the unbelievable true story of the Lake Peigneur disaster, how a lake only about 11 feet deep developed a roughly 200-foot-deep collapse zone, and how one industrial accident permanently transformed the landscape. Past in Lines explores strange history, forgotten disasters, science, archaeology, inventions, and the moments that changed the world in unexpected ways.