Maritime History

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum team keeps guests entertained with nautical insights and information about its latest underwater discoveries // Photos courtesy of Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society
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You’ll want to spend a few hours at the fascinating Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum complex in Paradise, located at the northern tip of Lake Superior’s Whitefish Bay in the Upper Peninsula.

Visitors to the captivating and sometimes haunting Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum complex in Paradise, located at the northern tip of Lake Superior’s Whitefish Bay, might run into Bruce Lynn, a history buff from Sault Ste. Marie. He’s celebrating his 11th year as the Upper Peninsula museum’s executive director.

Lynn grew up around Columbus, Ohio, and became fascinated by all things Great Lakes shipping during trips to his family’s cottage near Whitefish Point.

The affable leader has a long history with the Paradise museum, first working there as an intern after earning history and criminal justice degrees from OSU in 1996, and then returning to work full time in 1998 after earning a master’s degree in historic preservation from Eastern Michigan University. He left the museum to spend about 10 years as the Mackinac State Historic Parks’ group travel coordinator, and then worked for two years as assistant curator of programs at the Sloan Museum in Flint.

Lynn rejoined the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in 2011 as operations manager before taking on his current role in 2013.

“In the last few years the staff is the best we’ve had,” he says. “We’re fortunate to attract this talent, because we’re not near any big population areas.”

Lynn says the team is energetic about answering hundreds of visitors’ questions every day. That’s one of the many reasons he loves sharing their creativity at the various Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society’s entities, including the restored 1899 U.S. Weather Bureau Building in Sault Ste. Marie’s Soo Locks Park, which houses its headquarters and features an exhibit and museum store.

Among the museum’s highlights, check out the Edmund Fitzgerald ship bell and then peruse “The Legend Lives On: S.S Edmund Fitzgerald,” a book about the freighter’s 1975 sinking.

From the first of May through the end of October, the Whitefish Point grounds bustle with activity as thousands annually take in the museum’s exhibits and vast collection of artifacts — including the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald’s bell — as well as eye-opening underwater films of shipwreck discoveries.

Beyond the museum, guests make their way through a lightkeeper’s quarters, surfboat house, and Coast Guard motor lifeboat house with a video theater.

While all of this is happening on land, the society’s 47-foot underwater research vessel, R.V. David Boyd, and its crew are usually out scanning the bottom of the Great Lakes (up to 1,400 feet deep) with advanced marine sonic technology in search of shipwrecks.

Lynn attributes the museum’s success to team members like Sarah Jacques, the museum store’s manager. “She does an incredible job of working with vendors and selecting items that reflect our exhibits. After last year’s delivery of a 1940s-era, 36-foot, 18,000-pound USCG motor lifeboat, which was being restored at Mertaugh Boat Works in Hessel, Sarah found sources to create artwork, clothing, and other souvenirs specific to the boat,” Lynn explains.

Meanwhile, graphic designer Chris Winters and Lynn co-authored a comprehensive book, “The Legend Lives On: S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald,” about the 1975 sinking of the 729-foot freighter. The book includes more than 300 photographs from the society’s collection, including those from its three underwater expeditions to the shipwreck.

Corey Adkins, who won multiple Michigan Emmy awards during his 23 years at WWTV/WWUP in Traverse City, is in his fourth year as content and communications coordinator, and continues to earn awards.

Adkins, a GLSHS board member for the past 16 years, produced “The Great Storm of 1872,” which won Best Documentary Short at the 2023 Great Lakes International Film Festival. The film chronicles the fate of schooner-barges Jupiter and Saturn, both of which sank during a violent Lake Superior storm on Nov. 27, 1872.

Bruce Lynn is celebrating his 11th year as the facility’s executive director.

Darryl Ertel Jr., the director of marine operations and the David Boyd’s captain, and his wife, Sarah Wilde, who serves as the society’s operations manager, have been with the organization for a total of more than 25 years. Wilde is also a David Boyd crew member.

At times, Lynn accompanies the society’s research vessel’s crew, whose efforts have been especially fruitful of late, discovering a dozen shipwrecks since the spring of 2021.

The latest was located in 2023 when Negaunee resident Dan Fountain found a deep anomaly north of Copper Harbor. He reached out to GLSHS for help in investigating the find. The investigation led to the discovery of the wreckage of the S.S. Arlington, a 244-foot bulk carrier that sank in 1940 roughly 35 miles north of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

“Suddenly, a forgotten chapter in maritime history is new again. One of the descendants of the Arlington crew even emailed to thank us.”

A Remembrance: Relatives of the 29 men who perished in 1975 when the Edmund Fitzgerald went down before it could reach the relative safety of Whitefish Bay annually gather at the museum for a ceremony on Nov. 10, the anniversary of the sinking.

What’s New: The U.S. Navy radio building is dedicated to the A.A. Parker, a wooden steamship that went down near Grand Marais in 1903. The exhibit tells the amazing story of how the crew was rescued. Another new item is the aforementioned restored motor lifeboat.


Plan it!

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
shipwreckmuseum.com


 

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