Lake Superior Shipwreck Museum

After spending a couple of days on Lake Superior, stopping at the Shipwreck Museum proved to be an interesting stop.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, located at Whitefish Point Light Station, Michigan, preserves the maritime history of the Great Lakes, focusing on shipwrecks, particularly those in Lake Superior. It features exhibits on the U.S. Life-Saving Service and Coast Guard, artifacts from wrecks, and the recovered bell from the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.

One thing you learn while you are there is to not press your luck near Whitefish Point, especially late in the season. Lake Superior holds an estimated 550 shipwrecks, with over 350 discovered so far.

Often called the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes," at least 200 of these wrecks lie along Michigan's treacherous "Shipwreck Coast"—an 80-mile stretch of shoreline between Munising and Whitefish Point. The 25' and 30' waves took down ships from the 65' schooners to the 729' steel-hulled Edmund Fitzgerald. Once again, a well laid out Museum. The exhibits have artifacts recovered from the downed ships with excerpts from newspaper articles to tell the stories, all while listening to the ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

The museum included a tour of the lighthouse keepers' housing as well as a "lifesaving garage" exhibiting a cart to launch a tethered life preserver (imagine a wooden wagon circa 1920 that would have to be pulled on by two men on a sand beach).Read more