Today marks the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Great Lakes freighter immortalized in Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad. The Fitz went down in Lake Superior, off the eastern coast of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, thirty years ago tonight. And the news stories I’ve read and seen today are as much about that song as they are about the loss of her 29 crew members.It just so happened I was up there that same year. My family went to the UP for our Summer vacation. We toured the Soo Locks (at Sault Ste Marie), saw Tahquamenon Falls, visited the agate beaches at Marquette’s Presque Ile park, and got grievously ill making the crossing between Copper Harbor and Isle Royale. Many months later, we were shocked to discover something remarkable amid our vacation slides. One of the ships following our little Soo Locks tour boat was none other than the Edmund Fitzgerald. We’ve since taken my slide and blown it up to film. It was one of the first things I posted, when I first created my Photos page; but for the sake of the day I’ll share it on my blog. Who could’ve imagined what would befall those men just a few months later?
Photo taken Summer 1975. (Click image for larger size.)
