lookout point
Shipwrecks near the surface
A view of Lake Superior from a Marquette shoreline. The Great Lakes are the final resting place of many vessels, but not all lay in murky depths accessible only to divers. (Photo by Elizabeth Fust)
Accessing Michigan’s sunken treasure isn’t just for SCUBA divers Story by Elizabeth Fust
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any say that the watery depths of the earth are the final frontier for exploration, to discover the new and to rediscover the ruins of old. The Great Lakes hold a waterlogged history, from their shores to their depths, and you don’t need SCUBA gear or training to catch a glimpse of these shipwrecks. Many of the wrecks are close enough to shore to be seen by paddleboarders, kayakers and canoers. A new interactive map from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan History Center makes finding these shipwrecks easy and accessible. The map is an ongoing development built in ArcGIS with the details of the shipwrecks coming from the Michigan Underwater Preserve Council. There are over 6,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes and nearly 550 — many still undiscovered — littered on the shores and historic
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piers of the Great Lakes and around Michigan’s many peninsula’s, inlets and islands. Here are the stories of just a few that you can find in your travels along the Lake Superior shore. Panama – Ontonagon Approximate Distance from Shore: 160 feet Depth in Lake: 10 feet Laying furthest east of these shipwrecks in Lake Superior, the Panama met its fate at the mouth of the Mineral River, 14 miles from the port at Ontonagon. The Panama was a bulk freighter built in 1888 as the John Craig. After sustaining damages in 1903, the ship was rebuilt and renamed the Panama. With a load of coal and towing the barge Mantaza, the Panama was headed to the Keweenaw in 1906 when the fabled November gales of Lake Superior
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ravaged the freighter. Captain Jones ran the ship aground and the crew escaped into the woods — no lives were lost. The barge the Panama was towing had been let loose before they ran aground, but the heavy load the Panama carried had already done its damage to the freighter. Though able to anchor safely, the Panama was dashed against the rocks ashore. As the storm raged, the Panama was battered apart at the seams and broke in two. Some remains were scavenged, but the skeleton of the ship remains, sometimes visible from shore near where it lies in the water. Cruiser — Chapel Rock Approximate Distance from Shore: 150 feet Depth in Lake: 10 feet Many of the Great Lakes’ shipwrecks were freighters carrying supplies to the Upper Peninsula or natural prod-
