“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they called ‘gitche gumee’

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

When the skies of November turn gloomy

With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more

Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty 

That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed  

When the gales of November came early” -”The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot

Being a Michigander I have grown up knowing the sad tragedy of the mighty freighter named Edmund Fitzgerald and visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. 42 years ago today on November 10, 1975 one of the largest freighters ever to sail the great lakes (729 feet long and 75 feet wide) was lost in Lake Superior during a terrible storm.

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world and is the coldest/deepest of all the Great Lakes. The deepest point is about 1,300 feet and waves of over 40 feet have been recorded before. There is a saying that Lake Superior never gives up her dead… Continue reading “On This Day: Tragedy of the Edmund Fitzgerald” →