Thank you for supporting me in this historic, once-in-a-lifetime adventure that will carry on the legacy of the 29 crew members lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald 50 years ago. By helping me meet my fundraising goal, you are also helping renovate the Whitefish Point Lighthouse that safeguards mariners along Lake Superior's "Shipwreck Coast."
The year 2025 marks 50 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald, bound for Detroit with over 26,000 tons of iron ore, went down in that horrific 1975 Lake Superior storm, taking 29 souls with her. Immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, this has become the world's most famous shipwreck not named Titanic.
Whitefish Point Lighthouse is a most important beacon for all vessels entering or leaving Lake Superior since 1849, and the oldest operating lighthouse on the lake. In a most unfortunate irony, the lighthouse went dark due to a power outage and was no help to the Edmund Fitzgerald the night she lost her radar and ultimately lost her battle to the raging storm.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this historic maritime tragedy and to pay tribute to the 29 lost mariners, open water swimmers will carry on their legacy with a 17-stage, 411-mile relay swim from Lake Superior to Detroit. Participating swimmers will symbolically complete the intended route and cargo delivery that the Edmund Fitzgerald was tragically unable to complete on that fateful night 50 years ago, by passing between them iron ore pellets from the same dock in Superior, Wisconsin, where the ship took on its last load.
