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In a remarkable find that concludes a nearly 60-year search, a team has located the wreckage of a luxury steamer that met its watery grave during a fierce Lake Michigan gale in the late 1800s. The discovery marks the end of a long-standing quest that began decades ago.
Among the pioneers in this endeavor is an 80-year-old shipwreck enthusiast, Ehorn, who embarked on his journey of uncovering lost vessels at the tender age of 15. Since 1965, he has been on a mission to locate the Lac La Belle. It was a crucial tip from fellow shipwreck hunter and author, Ross Richardson, that finally brought him success in 2022. Equipped with side-scan sonar, Ehorn managed to locate the ship within just two hours on the lake, thanks to a narrowed search grid informed by Richardson’s insight.
Ehorn likens the pursuit to solving a complex puzzle, one where the pieces don’t always fit together easily. Yet this time, everything aligned perfectly, leading to an immediate discovery that left him feeling “super elated.”
While Ehorn remains tight-lipped about the exact clue that unlocked the ship’s location, Richardson shared that a commercial fisherman had snagged a relic characteristic of 19th-century steamships at a particular spot. However, Richardson refrained from divulging further details, acknowledging the competitive nature of shipwreck hunting and the potential impact such information could have on future searches.
The Lac La Belle’s history is as storied as its rediscovery. Built in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1864, the impressive 217-foot steamer originally traveled between Cleveland and Lake Superior. It faced a grim fate in 1866, sinking in the St. Clair River following a collision. Remarkably, the ship was salvaged and restored in 1869, only to meet its final demise in the turbulent waters of Lake Michigan.
The ship left Milwaukee for Grand Haven, Michigan, in a gale on the night of Oct, 13, 1872, with 53 passengers and crew and a cargo of barley, pork, flour and whiskey. About two hours into the trip, the ship began to leak uncontrollably. The captain turned the Lac La Belle back to Milwaukee but huge waves came crashing over her, extinguishing her boilers. The storm drove the ship south. Around 5 a.m., the captain ordered lifeboats lowered and the ship went down stern first.
One of the lifeboats capsized on the way to shore, killing eight people. The other lifeboats made landfall along the Wisconsin coast between Racine and Kenosha.
The wreck’s exterior is covered with quagga mussels and the upper cabins are gone, Ehorn said, but the hull looks intact and the oak interiors are still in good shape.
The Great Lakes are home to anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 shipwrecks, most of which remain undiscovered, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin Water Library. Shipwreck hunters have been searching the lakes with more urgency in recent years out of concerns that invasive quagga mussels are slowly destroying wrecks.
The Lac La Belle is the 15th shipwreck Ehorn has located. “It was one more to put a check mark by,” he said. “Now it’s on to the next one. It’s getting harder and harder. The easier ones have been found.”