GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECK MUSEUM AT WHITEFISH POINT MICHIGAN

Currently in Newberry MI (Low 56 Mostly Sunny High 74) 

Subtitled: The Legend Lives On

We went to Whitefish Point mainly to visit the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and the Whitefish Point Light Station. We knew there was other stuff to be seen there but we had no idea how great this day was going to be. First stop was the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, as seen as we were entering the complex.

Whitefish Point Lighthouse was also visible from the parking lot. There will be more about our visit there in a future blog posting.

We wanted to visit this museum because we like museums, and we are interested in the history of Great Lakes shipping and shipwrecks, but mostly because of the Edmund Fitzgerald which sank in 1975 and immortalized in the Gordon Lightfoot song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Here is a detailed scale model.

After the museum we went to the Shipwreck Theater in another building that had a great film about the Edmund Fitzgerald. At the request of the surviving family members the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald was recovered and is on display.

There are a lot of displays in the museum that deal with the history of shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. The displays are in chronology order and have some fascinating stories. It was dimly lit and a little eerie reading all the stories of the shipwrecks, some with survivors, and to see some of the artifacts recovered.

On display in the museum are some Fresnel lenses which were used in Lighthouses. Here is a 4th order lens, the same type as used in the Whitefish Point Light Station.

Here is a 2nd order lens that was used as a warning in the White Shoals area, which is the 2nd largest lens made and the largest we have seen in person.

Stay tuned for our take on the rest of the complex in a future posting.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo