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GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECK MUSEUM

© Mary M. Alward

This week I am diverting from my topic to write an article in tribute to the men who died on the Edmund Fitzgeralf when she sank in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Though the Edmund Fitzgerald was not a Canadian Freighter, the Canadian people mourned the passing of the great ship, her captain and her crew. Canadian folksinger, Gordon Lightfoot, wrote a song in tribute to this great ship and the twenty-nine men who died when she sank into the depths of Lake Superior during a raging Nor' Easter.

Lake Superior is a lake of beauty and splendor, though her moods change swiftly. Called Gitche Gummee by the Chippewa, the lake was one that they greatly respected. Gale force winds can blow in unexpectedly, especially in November. These raging winds bring waves that are sometimes as high as thirty feet. Lake Superior demands that all who sail on her, whether it be small craft or giant ships, take much care while on her waters. She has claimed many lives.

Whitefish Point, Michigan has the only remaining active lighthouse along the southeast shore of Lake Superior. It marks the heavily traveled approach to the Soo Locks and Whitefish Bay. In 1970, the Coast Guard automated the Light Station. A resident lighthouse keeper was no longer needed. Instead, the dwelling houses became the home of the Great Lake Shipwreck Museum. This area is known as the Shipwreck Coast because more than half of the 550 wrecks that have sunk into Superior’s murky waters have occurred here.

The Great Lakes Historical Society is a group of divers who are researching the wrecks along the coast. They opened the museum in 1986. It is the only museum that is solely dedicated to shipwrecks of the Great Lakes.

Lake Superior’s unrelenting fury makes it the most treacherous of the Great Lakes. Throughout the museum and theater, visitors can see the maritime legends come to life. Artifacts and exhibits tell the stories of ships and men who went up against Superior and lost their lives to its menacing waters.

Some of the earliest ships lost to Superior were sailing schooners of the 1800’s. The museum devotes a separate display to each ship and tells heart-wrenching tales of ships and men who have been lost in Superior’s deep, cold waters and raging storms. The darkened interior has soft music and special sound effects of blaring foghorns and crying sea gulls. Theatrical lights make the experience so life like that many visitors say fear slithers along their spines. A thrilling experience to say the least.