50 years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank to the bottom Lake Superior. On Monday, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, near the vessel's final resting place in the Upper Peninsula, will remember the 29 deceased crew members.
There will be an outdoor public remembrance event at 2 p.m. and a private event held for families of the crew later at 7 p.m. Both will be livestreamed on the museum's website.
The Fitzgerald was carrying taconite pellets from Wisconsin to Detroit on Nov. 10, 1975. It's still not entirely why the vessel sank.
In his new book, “The Gales of November: The Untold Stories of the Edmund Fitzgerald," author John U. Bacon says new data shows that weather may have been a bigger factor than previously known.
"We now know that they were not only facing 100 mile per hour winds," Bacon told WCMU's Morning Edition Host Tina Sawyer. "They were facing 30-foot waves regularly, ten 40-foot waves. About three or four 50-foot waves on average, and probably one or two 60-foot waves."
The event will also feature a performance from a Gordon Lightfoot tribute band. Lightfoot's 1976 ballad, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," garnered international acclaim and endures to this day. Mike Fornes is the tribute band's leader. This will be his 15th year performing at Whitefish Point as part of a remembrance ceremony.
He told WCMU he's honored to support the families of the victims.
"You're next to the family members that come to that ceremony, you really feel a kinship," Fornes said. "You can see the pain. You can see the grief that is still with them. Those 29 men are still in the ship."
Divers have not been allowed to visit the wreckage since 1994. It's designated as an international grave site.
