2012's most popular stories on fox11online.com

We've posted around 15,000 stories to fox11online.com this year. Of course, people were more interested in some stories than in others. Scott Hurley takes a look at the five most popular stories of 2012.

Here were the five most popular:

5. Car pulled out of Fox River

In a year of odd stories, the fifth-most popular on fox11online.com was one of the weirdest. In June, police pulled a car from the bottom of the Fox River in Green Bay.

"It's not every day they pull a 10-to-30-year-old vehicle out of the river," Eric Gabrielson of Green Bay said as he watched the car being pulled out.

It was a spectacle as the car, covered in mud and zebra mussels, surfaced. Police eventually determined the car was stolen from a Green Bay bar in 1979 - and had been at the bottom of the river ever since.

That story received 42,698 page views this year.

4. Army couple surprise children at Outagamie County Regional Airport

Coming in at number four was a story that warmed the hearts of many in Northeast Wisconsin - and around the world.

Travis and Isela Ulman - a pair of soldiers serving in Afghanistan - made a surprise trip to the Fox Valley to see their family.

"Words can't describe it," Isela Ulman said on May 22 after being reunited with her children, Tashia and Tru.

The emotional video is the most popular in the history of fox11online.com, having been watched more than 600,000 times.

The story itself got 43,063 page views.

3. Diver found in Lake Michigan identified

Another years-old mystery from the deep was the subject of the third-most-viewed story.

In August, scuba divers found the remains of one of their own in the waters of Lake Michigan in Door County. An Iowa man, Dirk Kann, disappeared while diving with friends in 1999. When his body was found, it was still covered with his diving gear.

"Because of the pressure and the depth it's at, there's not a lot of oxygen down there. The cold, it's like a refrigerator; it'll keep for quite a while," diver Alan Pahnke said in August.

People clicked on this story 46,544 times.

2. Illegal to post pictures of ballot

It seems fitting that in a year with six elections, an election-related story comes in at number two.

A little-known state law came to light this year. It says you can't post a photo of your completed ballot. The law - designed to discourage buying people's votes - became an issue in an age of social media.

"I didn't even know anyone would think about doing that, but I suppose with all the different types of media that people are doing that," Winnebago County Clerk Sue Ertmer said on May 29.

The story became popular when it was first posted in May before the gubernatorial election - and then people found it again before the general election in November. All told, it had 62,167 page views.

1. Booms continue in Clintonville

Coming in at number one was an "earth-shaking" story.

For days in March, mysterious booming noises plagued the people of Clintonville. Eventually, the U.S. Geological Survey determined that a series of earthquakes hit the area.

"They use the word 'swarm.' This could be its own individual earthquake. So they don't make it sound like these are aftershocks like they talk about out West," Clintonville city administrator Lisa Kuss said in March.

And it was a swarm of website visitors who clicked on the story 134,772 times.

• Click here to see the most popular stories by month