Unless you hear Lake Superior roar with merciless wrath or watch Lake Michigan and Lake Huron waves rear up and crash with unbridled fury, you may not grasp how 1,500 ships submerged off Michigan’s coasts. These ships were vital to commerce and the Midwest’s growth, carrying iron ore, taconite pellets, limestone, cement, lumber, grain and more to and from the Great Lakes and East Coast ports and beyond,
Many of these sunken schooners and freighters set sail from the Upper Peninsula or never reached its safe harbors — assailed by the Great Lakes' fierce storms, swallowed by impenetrable fog and gouged by treacherous rocks.
The U.P. proudly preserves its legendary maritime history. Uncover tales of heroism and heartbreak, dive or boat over the eerie resting places of lost ships or view relics like the iconic bell from the famed S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald. This guide reveals the enduring legacy and lore of our shipwreck heritage.
Famous Shipwrecks | Shipwreck Museums & Historic Sites | Shipwreck Dive Sites | Causes for Shipwrecks | Where to Stay
The U.P.’s Most Famous Shipwrecks
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The story of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank on Nov. 10, 1975, in a powerful storm, is perhaps the most famous of all Lake Superior contemporary wrecks. Measuring over 700 feet long and carrying taconite pellets, she was the largest ship sailing on North America’s Great Lakes. The Fitzgerald went down without a distress signal in near hurricane-force winds and waves towering 35 feet high. She took the 29 crew members, including Captain Ernest M. McSorley with her.
The Fitzgerald rests in Canadian waters, 530 feet deep, about 17 miles from Whitefish Bay near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. A U.S. Navy aircraft first detected the remains on November 14, 1975, and it was soon after found in two pieces. The mystery that shrouds the ship’s fate is still being researched. But the ship and its crew live on in Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 haunting song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Anyone who attempts diving to the shipwreck site without first being approved by the Canadian government faces a 1 million dollar fine. That’s why the bell on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Paradise is a rare encounter with this mighty ship.
SS Western Reserve
One of the first steel-hulled freighters, the SS Western Reserve, sank in 1892 due to what was later determined to be metal fatigue in its hull. This tragedy led to new safety standards for shipbuilding and inspired legends of ghostly voices heard over Lake Superior’s waters.
SS Bannockburn
Known as “The Flying Dutchman of the Great Lakes,” this ship disappeared in 1902 with no trace of its crew or wreckage ever recovered. Tales of ghostly apparitions surround the SS Bannockburn, as mariners have reported sightings of the vessel’s shadowy figure amidst the fog near Whitefish Point. Today, it remains one of the Great Lakes' most compelling mysteries.
SS Cyprus
The SS Cyprus sank under extreme conditions, capsizing in high winds and rough waves in 1907. Twenty-two crew members lost their lives, with only one survivor, Charles Pitz, who heroically made it to shore after hours adrift in freezing water.
SS Rouse Simmons
Best known as the “Christmas Tree Ship,” the SS Rouse Simmons sank in Lake Michigan near Two Rivers, Wisconsin, in November 1912. A 42-year-old three-mast schooner it was very old by any ship’s standards. The Simmons set sail on November 22 from Thompson Harbor near Manistique loaded with 5,500 pine trees bound for sale in Chicago. Captain August Schuenemann warmly welcomed local lumber workers aboard, inviting them to join the crew so they could visit family and friends in the Chicago area. Tragically, 16 men lost their lives to the powerful gale-force winds.
SS Emperor
The SS Emperor, measuring 525 feet long, struck Canoe Rocks on Isle Royale in 1947. It sank quickly, taking 12 crew members with it. The Emperor’s wreckage lies partially in shallow waters and has become a popular site for recreational divers, who explore the tragic site preserved by Lake Superior’s chilling depths.
Explore the Heroic Tales and Tragic Shipwreck Sites in the U.P.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum | Whitefish Point | Paradise
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is a premier place to take a profound look into the lives, artifacts and stories of shipwrecks on some of the world’s largest freshwater seas. The museum stands along Lake Superior, just miles from where the SS Edmund Fitzgerald lies beneath its waves. The world-class exhibits are powerful reminders of the perils of maritime transport on the Great Lakes.
Nearly 100,000 visitors come each year between May 1 and October 31 to see the SS Edmund Fitzgerald’s 200-pound bronze bell recovered from the wreck in 1995. It serves as a solemn memorial to the 29 lives lost on Nov. 10, 1975. Beyond its exhibits, the museum complex features historical buildings crucial to navigation and safety efforts, including the oldest active lighthouse on Lake Superior. This museum and the adjacent Whitefish Point Bird Observatory are must-sees in the U.P.
Museum Ship Valley Camp | Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie’s Museum Ship Valley Camp is another top-of-the-list destination for anyone intrigued by Great Lakes shipwrecks. Permanently docked minutes from the Soo Locks, the SS Valley Camp launched in 1917. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this historic vessel logged over 3 million miles before retiring in 1966. Today, it houses the largest Great Lakes maritime museum, featuring over 100 captivating exhibits. Highlights include two lifeboats from the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and in-depth videos detailing the tragedy of its last voyage.
Hiawatha Water Trail | Big Bay to Grand Marais
The Hiawatha Water Trail stretches 120 miles between Big Bay and Grand Marais. Once the path for Native Americans and European explorers, it now offers modern paddlers encounters with historic lighthouses, shipwrecks that are visible from the water and small towns along the southern Lake Superior shoreline.
Grand Marais Lightkeepers Museum | Grand Marais
The Grand Marais Lightkeepers Museum captures historic maritime tales of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore using antiques, logging-era displays and many photos from Grand Marais’s boom town days at the beginning of the 1900s.
Spray Falls | Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Remote and impressive, Spray Falls plunges 70 feet into Lake Superior. It is best viewed from the water by taking one of the Pictured Rocks Boat Cruises offered daily in the summer. As you pass the waterfall, the 1856 shipwreck of the SS Superior City lies right at the base of the falls about 20 feet down!
Glass-Bottom Shipwreck Boat Tours | Munising
One of the most extraordinary adventures you will experience in the U.P. is taking one of the Glass-Bottom Shipwreck Boat Tours. This two-hour, narrated journey takes you over two shipwrecks resting on Lake Superior’s cold, rocky floor while sharing the intriguing stories behind them. As a bonus, you’ll enjoy views of Grand Island’s picturesque coastline.
Marquette Maritime Museum and Marquette Harbor Lighthouse | Marquette
The Marquette Maritime Museum in the old City Waterworks building and the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse (circa 1866) are near downtown Marquette, the Upper Peninsula’s largest city. Both sites are open from May 14 to October 9, Tuesday through Sunday. During the winter, the museum offers maritime history lectures at the Ore Dock Brewing Company and annual events such as Lake Superior Day and Ghosts of Lighthouse Point. Visit both sites to see exhibits including birch-bark canoes, the best Fresnel lighthouse lens collection on the Great Lakes and stories and remnants from the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and the SS Henry B Smith shipwrecks.
Eagle Harbor Light Station & Museum Complex | Eagle Harbor
The Eagle Harbor Light Station & Museum Complex tells the stories of how copper mining, commercial fishing and shipping shaped the lives of people during the boom years of this beautiful peninsula. There are four museums on the complex’s site, including the lighthouse, a Maritime Museum in the old fog signal building, a Keweenaw History Museum located in the old U. S. Coast Guard Station garage and a Commercial Fishing Museum in one of the assistant keepers' buildings.
Eagle Harbor Life Saving Museum | Eagle Harbor
The Eagle Harbor Life Saving Museum houses shipwreck memorabilia and displays all the early wooden rescue boats used by the U.S. Life-saving Service and the U.S. Coast Guard. Among its exhibits is a Chrysler automobile salvaged from the City of Bangor freighter, which was wrecked on the rocks off the Keweenaw Peninsula on November 30, 1926.
Astor Shipwreck Park | Copper Harbor
Ignite your inner explorer by adventuring slightly off the beaten path from Copper Harbor’s main drag. The small, rock-strewn beach bears the name of one of the most historic shipwrecks on Lake Superior. In September 1844, the gale-swept sea dashed and pinned the cargo schooner, the John Jacob Astor, on the Keweenaw Peninsula rocks, Unable to free her, she broke apart and her remains are scattered in the Keweenaw Underwater Preserve — a popular site for beginner to intermediate divers. The Astor was the first commercial ship on Lake Superior and is the oldest known shipwreck on the largest of the Great Lakes.
Christmas Tree Ship Marker | Thompson
Stop in Thompson, along U.S. 2, to read the historical marker for the SS Rouse Simmons, the “Christmas Tree Ship” that plunged with its passengers to the bottom of Lake Michigan in a deadly snowstorm.
Carl D. Bradley Lakeview Memorial Park | Manistique
This Lake Michigan park along U.S. 2 was renamed to memorialize the SS Carl D. Bradley, shipwrecked in 1958. The self-unloading Great Lakes freighter was upbound on Lake Michigan when a vicious November storm broke her hull in two. She sank before the crew could launch the ship’s life-saving boats.
De Tour Passage | Easternmost Tip of the U.P.
This natural point channels ships from Lake Huron to the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie. Detour Passage excites scuba divers who like the excitement of finding 16 shipwrecks and a sunken construction crane. However, you don’t need scuba gear to see two shipwrecks in shallow water from your kayak.
De Tour Passage Historical Museum | De Tour Village
The De Tour Passage Historical Museum is conveniently close to the Drummond Island Ferry Dock on the St Marys River. It offers a window into the area’s early maritime history and the people and events that shaped the village’s stories.
Drummond Island | Lake Huron
In Lake Huron, off the far eastern Upper Peninsula, is Drummond Island. It is the second largest island in the Great Lakes and an adventure-packed recreational destination that doubles as an “Island Time” relaxation spot. Besides scuba diving in the De Tour Passage, you can launch your kayak at Big Shoal Bay Beach along Scammon Cove, Then paddle over the wreck of the schooner barge TROY lying in 5-10 feet of water (some of its wooden ribs stick out of the water). Just off Meade Island, you can paddle over the tug SILVER SPRAY visible in 5-10 feet of water. Be sure to add this to your Eastern U.P. explorations!
Great Lakes Shipwreck Dive Sites in the U.P.
One of the most exhilarating scuba diving experiences is reaching the shipwrecks on the bottomlands of the Great Lakes. Divers can observe, film and photograph their finds in the designated underwater preserves. However, Michigan and Canadian laws prohibit illegally salvaging the ships or removing, altering and destroying artifacts from these historic treasures.
The Great Lakes divers’ motto is:
"Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but bubbles."
This is a list of U.P. underwater preserves and shipwreck sites:
Straits of Mackinac Underwater Preserve
De Tour Passage Underwater Preserve
Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve
Marquette County Underwater Preserve
Isle Royale National Park Preserve
Leading Causes of Great Lakes Shipwrecks
Three vast freshwater seas wrap around the Upper Peninsula and its islands. Commercial and passenger ships have sailed on Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan since the mid-1800s; 1,500 vessels have had ill-fated journeys across them. Here are some key reasons ships and their crews have never left these waters.
Fierce Storms and High Waves
November storms, like the one that doomed the SS Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, can produce waves over 30 feet high. These powerful waves can flood and topple vessels, smash them into hull-ripping rocks and split ships in two.
Cold Water and Freezing Temperatures
With frigid winter temperatures, the icy Great Lakes waters heighten the risk of hypothermia and drastically reduce survival time for shipwreck victims. Cold water contributes to structural fatigue on metal hulls that can lead to sudden fractures in strong winds and waves.
Heavy Cargo and Structural Fatigue
Ships often carry thousands of tons of iron ore or other materials across the Great Lakes. Historically, the immense weight, combined with design flaws, inferior materials and unbalanced cargo shifts have contributed to many wrecks. These cargo-related disasters brought about reforms, construction standards and rigorous testing.
Navigational Hazards and Limited Visibility
Great Lakes’ geography has hidden reefs and rocky shoals, especially around the Shipwreck Coast near Whitefish Point. Thick fog, heavy snow and high-velocity winds can obscure navigational markers, leading to tragic accidents and difficult rescues.
Plan Your Great Lakes Shipwreck Adventure
Whether planning a day trip from nearby towns or embarking on a multi-day exploration, your Great Lakes shipwreck adventure awaits! Find various lodgings near museums, historic sites and popular diving spots that suit your budget and itinerary. Between adventures, visit nearby restaurants and shops, discover one-of-a-kind attractions and find peace in places where time seems to pause. Follow your passion for shipwrecks and launch your unforgettable journey soon.
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