THE MYSTERY OF SHIPWRECKS AND LAKE SUPERIOR

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is the only one of its kind dedicated to the perils of maritime transport on the Great Lakes. It is fittingly located at Whitefish Point, Michigan, site of the oldest active lighthouse on Lake Superior.

The legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald remains the most mysterious and controversial of all shipwreck tales heard around the Great Lakes. Her story is surpassed in books, film and media only by that of the Titanic. Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot inspired popular interest in this vessel with his 1976 ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

The Edmund Fitzgerald

The Edmund Fitzgerald

The Edmund Fitzgerald was lost with her entire crew of 29 men on Lake Superior November 10, 1975, 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan. Whitefish Point is the site of the Whitefish Point Light Station and Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) has conducted three underwater expeditions to the wreck, 1989, 1994, and 1995

New Surfboat House Exhibit

This is the original historic building constructed in 1923 by the U.S. Coast Guard for its Surfboat House at the Whitefish Point Rescue Station. The exhibit features the story of the U.S. Lifesaving Service and the U.S. Coast Guard along Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast; a replica Beach Cart which carried beach rescue equipment; and a replica Beebe-McClellan 26-foot handmade surfboat. Exhibits also include a variety of artifacts and descriptive panels. Funding for the exhibit is supported by Michigan Humanities Council and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.