Today in history: 44 years ago the Edmund Fitzgerald sank

In Minnesota, the legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald is deeply ingrained in our shared history. I've visited Lake Superior and the Lake Superior Marine Museum countless times as a child and as an adult. As a child, I was enamoured with the giant lake and my brain couldn't comprehend how large the lake is. As an adult, I am still enamoured with the lake and the legend of the "Fitz." 

Today marks the 44th anniversary of the demise of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Many people know the song by Gordon Lightfoot that he penned about the Edmund Fitzgerald. 

From MPR news.....

"There have been many other shipwrecks on Lake Superior over the years. Many other mammoth November storms. Many other lives lost.

But thanks in large part to singer Gordon Lightfoot, one shipwreck stands above the rest in the Great Lakes' collective memory: the Edmund Fitzgerald.


Sunday, Nov. 10, marks the 44th anniversary of the sinking of the Fitzgerald in a November gale on eastern Lake Superior with the loss of all 29 men aboard — a tragedy memorialized by Lightfoot in the now-iconic song he released the following year."

Today a ceremony will honor the “Fitz.” https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/11/10/edmund-fitzgerald-44th-anniversary-shipwreck-lake-superior

The Edmund Fitzgerald in the St. Marys River near Nine Mile Point, circa 1975. Photo from MPR news. 

The Lost Fitzgerald Search Tapes

More info:

12 Doomed Facts About the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/70951/12-doomed-facts-about-ss-edmund-fitzgerald

The Fateful Journey 

https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/edmund-fitzgerald/the-fateful-journey/

Memory of the Edmund Fitzgerald and those on board lives on decades later

https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/memory-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald-and-those-on-board-lives-on-decades-later