Image Credit: Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Society
Built in 1843 the schooner Home, is one of the oldest shipwrecks discovered in Wisconsin.
There are at least 1,200 shipwrecks on the bottom of Lake Michigan — the second most of all the Great Lakes. Our wild and stormy “inland sea” has caused many vessels to founder, and its deep, cold water tends to preserve all that wood and metal, sometimes for centuries.
Ships lost on Lake Michigan include Le Griffon, French explorer LaSalle’s schooner, which sunk all the way back in 1679; the Home, a ship believed to have helped enslaved people escape north before it wrecked in 1858; and the Rouse Simmons, famously lost delivering Christmas trees to Chicago in November of 1912.
Divers can explore many wrecks, including in the Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Preserve and the newly established Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary. As recently as September 2023, a team discovered the 1867 cargo ship Trinidad off the coast of Algoma, Wisconsin. Many of the ships that went down, however, have yet to be discovered. Lying alone in the dark, they serve as permanent gravesites for those who perished.
Learn more cool things about Lake Michigan here!
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Credits
- Wilmette native Valerie Van Heest is an underwater explorer and historian who has been involved in the discovery and archaeological documentation of numerous historic Great Lakes shipwrecks. Check out her book LOST & FOUND: Legendary Lake Michigan Shipwrecks.
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, NOAA, Big Think, CBS News, National Archives, Michigan Shipwreck Research Association..
