Thousands attend Edmund Fitzgerald 50th memorial ceremony at Whitefish Point
WHITEFISH POINT, NMI – Thousands of people gathered at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point on a windswept section of Lake Superior on Monday, Nov. 10 to mark the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people are estimated to have attended the memorial ceremony on Monday.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that launched in 1958. It was the largest ship on North America’s Great Lakes and remains the largest to have sunk there.
The outdoor public remembrance service featured numerous speakers and presentations.
“We’ve discovered 15 shipwrecks in the last four years, and those are just the most recent of the thousands discovered in the Great Lakes,” said Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and Historical Society Executive Director Bruce Lynn. “But no shipwreck stands out in the public consciousness like the Edmund Fitzgerald does.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also paid tribute to the famous shipwreck during Monday’s ceremony.
“The mighty Edmund Fitzgerald and its 29 crew disappeared below Lake Superior’s waves,” Whitmer opened. She spoke of the resilience of Michigan workers then and now, every day working people who, even in the face of grave danger, continue to strive for their families and communities. Whitmer also recalled Michigan’s long role in the maritime industry and shipping, and how those characteristics put the state at the center of much of the nation’s 20th-century thrust into modernity.
Michigan Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) followed the governor, referencing the state House and Senate’s recent resolutions commemorating the 50th anniversary of the shipwreck. Like the governor, Damoose spoke about Michigan’s central role in 20th-century U.S. growth, particularly its service as the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II, producing and shipping weapons to the Allied forces in Europe and the Pacific.
“We declared today, Nov. 10, 2025, ‘Edmund Fitzgerald Day,’” said Damoose. “It’s my honor to present that resolution here on these northern shores in memory of the haunting tragedy that unfolded on Lake Superior just a few miles from where we stand, 50 years ago.”
New York Times bestselling author John U. Bacon, who recently published a book called “The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” was the keynote speaker.
Bacon regaled the audience with little-known, recently discovered facts and important historical details about the Edmund Fitzgerald, its crew and the importance of Great Lakes shipping.
“After World War II, no region was more vital to the nation’s economic strength than the Great Lakes,” Bacon said. “This part of the world was the center of the global economy, possessing all the power and prestige that Silicon Valley enjoys today. That industrial dominance depended on Great Lakes freighters getting iron ore from the shores of Lake Superior to the factories in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo.”
Bacon noted that during the 20th century, 37 of the 100 largest companies in America were based in and around Detroit.
“Shipping was the circulatory system to the beating heart of American manufacturing, and that beating heart was located in Detroit,” Bacon said.
Bacon added that despite the importance of Great Lakes shipping, few people know about the lives of those who make it possible, primarily because, while other tradespeople are known and talked about because they interact within their communities, sailors are away on ships for much of the year.
“When something is too hard for everyone else, it’s just right for us,” Bacon said, referring to those in the crowd and Great Lakes residents writ large. “When we think about what keeps this particular story alive, I’d just like to turn the microphone to everyone gathered here, because you’re the answer. Somewhere between two and three-thousand people are here with us today, on a cold, windy, gray, snowy, November day outside in below freezing weather, to commemorate a tragedy that happened half-a-century ago. So thank you. Thank you for keeping this story alive so we, and those who come after us, will never forget it. We’re not gone until the last person who remembered us is gone, and my hope is that we never live in a world in which no one remembers the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Some people drove hours just to attend the ceremony and pay their respects to the lost crew.
“The whole story is just so unusual,” said Elk Rapids resident Pat Miller when we asked what the shipwreck meant to him. “When the Edmund Fitzgerald left Duluth, it was such a nice day, and everything felt normal. But then it disappeared into a storm and ‘poof!’ it was gone. But Gordon Lightfoot popularized the ship and the crew, which brought national attention to it. That led to public outcry and the U.S. population pressuring shipping companies to make shipping safer. That’s why we haven’t had a single wreck since, despite there being around 6,000 wrecks before the Edmund Fitzgerald went down.”
Author and musician Mike Fornes talked about how so many people around the country and the world know about this shipwreck, thanks largely to “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot.
“We have Gordon Lightfoot to thank for making a hit song about the shipwreck in 1976 that became #1 on the charts in Canada and #2 on the charts in the United States,” Fornes said. “Lightfoot and his musicians got together and literally just took a crack at the song after never practicing it before. They didn’t know their sound engineer was recording them at the time, and that first attempt, the one that the band members tried out while having no real idea what kind of song they were trying to create, that first attempt at the song is the version you hear on the radio.”
The bell of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, is on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point.
Sean Ley, development officer for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, began the solemn recitation of the names of the 29 sailors who lost their lives in the tragedy. At the reading of each name, family members of the lost mariners rang the bell. Once the last name was called, Ley called for a final ringing of the bell for the freighter itself.
Just as the last note of the bell began to die down, Fornes took to the podium to play the crowd off with a rendition of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Later on Monday night, the museum welcomed family members of the crew in a private remembrance ceremony.
Ren Brabenec is a Brimley-based freelance writer and journalist with The Sault News.
Thousands attend Edmund Fitzgerald 50th memorial ceremony at Whitefish Point
WHITEFISH POINT, NMI – Thousands of people gathered at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point on a windswept section of Lake Superior on Monday, Nov. 10 to mark the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people are estimated to have attended the memorial ceremony on Monday.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that launched in 1958. It was the largest ship on North America’s Great Lakes and remains the largest to have sunk there.
The outdoor public remembrance service featured numerous speakers and presentations.
“We’ve discovered 15 shipwrecks in the last four years, and those are just the most recent of the thousands discovered in the Great Lakes,” said Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and Historical Society Executive Director Bruce Lynn. “But no shipwreck stands out in the public consciousness like the Edmund Fitzgerald does.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also paid tribute to the famous shipwreck during Monday’s ceremony.
“The mighty Edmund Fitzgerald and its 29 crew disappeared below Lake Superior’s waves,” Whitmer opened. She spoke of the resilience of Michigan workers then and now, every day working people who, even in the face of grave danger, continue to strive for their families and communities. Whitmer also recalled Michigan’s long role in the maritime industry and shipping, and how those characteristics put the state at the center of much of the nation’s 20th-century thrust into modernity.
Michigan Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) followed the governor, referencing the state House and Senate’s recent resolutions commemorating the 50th anniversary of the shipwreck. Like the governor, Damoose spoke about Michigan’s central role in 20th-century U.S. growth, particularly its service as the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II, producing and shipping weapons to the Allied forces in Europe and the Pacific.
“We declared today, Nov. 10, 2025, ‘Edmund Fitzgerald Day,’” said Damoose. “It’s my honor to present that resolution here on these northern shores in memory of the haunting tragedy that unfolded on Lake Superior just a few miles from where we stand, 50 years ago.”
New York Times bestselling author John U. Bacon, who recently published a book called “The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” was the keynote speaker.
Bacon regaled the audience with little-known, recently discovered facts and important historical details about the Edmund Fitzgerald, its crew and the importance of Great Lakes shipping.
“After World War II, no region was more vital to the nation’s economic strength than the Great Lakes,” Bacon said. “This part of the world was the center of the global economy, possessing all the power and prestige that Silicon Valley enjoys today. That industrial dominance depended on Great Lakes freighters getting iron ore from the shores of Lake Superior to the factories in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo.”
Bacon noted that during the 20th century, 37 of the 100 largest companies in America were based in and around Detroit.
“Shipping was the circulatory system to the beating heart of American manufacturing, and that beating heart was located in Detroit,” Bacon said.
Bacon added that despite the importance of Great Lakes shipping, few people know about the lives of those who make it possible, primarily because, while other tradespeople are known and talked about because they interact within their communities, sailors are away on ships for much of the year.
“When something is too hard for everyone else, it’s just right for us,” Bacon said, referring to those in the crowd and Great Lakes residents writ large. “When we think about what keeps this particular story alive, I’d just like to turn the microphone to everyone gathered here, because you’re the answer. Somewhere between two and three-thousand people are here with us today, on a cold, windy, gray, snowy, November day outside in below freezing weather, to commemorate a tragedy that happened half-a-century ago. So thank you. Thank you for keeping this story alive so we, and those who come after us, will never forget it. We’re not gone until the last person who remembered us is gone, and my hope is that we never live in a world in which no one remembers the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Some people drove hours just to attend the ceremony and pay their respects to the lost crew.
“The whole story is just so unusual,” said Elk Rapids resident Pat Miller when we asked what the shipwreck meant to him. “When the Edmund Fitzgerald left Duluth, it was such a nice day, and everything felt normal. But then it disappeared into a storm and ‘poof!’ it was gone. But Gordon Lightfoot popularized the ship and the crew, which brought national attention to it. That led to public outcry and the U.S. population pressuring shipping companies to make shipping safer. That’s why we haven’t had a single wreck since, despite there being around 6,000 wrecks before the Edmund Fitzgerald went down.”
Author and musician Mike Fornes talked about how so many people around the country and the world know about this shipwreck, thanks largely to “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot.
“We have Gordon Lightfoot to thank for making a hit song about the shipwreck in 1976 that became #1 on the charts in Canada and #2 on the charts in the United States,” Fornes said. “Lightfoot and his musicians got together and literally just took a crack at the song after never practicing it before. They didn’t know their sound engineer was recording them at the time, and that first attempt, the one that the band members tried out while having no real idea what kind of song they were trying to create, that first attempt at the song is the version you hear on the radio.”
The bell of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, is on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point.
Sean Ley, development officer for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, began the solemn recitation of the names of the 29 sailors who lost their lives in the tragedy. At the reading of each name, family members of the lost mariners rang the bell. Once the last name was called, Ley called for a final ringing of the bell for the freighter itself.
Just as the last note of the bell began to die down, Fornes took to the podium to play the crowd off with a rendition of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Later on Monday night, the museum welcomed family members of the crew in a private remembrance ceremony.
Ren Brabenec is a Brimley-based freelance writer and journalist with The Sault News.
