The Edmund Fitzgerald, November 10, 1975

(1975 Photo by Bob Campbell, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum)

We all know the story, and the song, and it's still an incredibly sad event that happened November 10, 1975.

The year before, in 1974, the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was anchored in the Detroit River just east of the Renaissance Center. When the crew went to lift the anchor, the chain broke leaving the anchor at the  bottom of the river. In 1992, divers retrieved the anchor and it can now be found at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle in Detroit.

The next year the ship and crew went down in Lake Superior.

The SS Valley Camp was a lake freighter now turned into a museum, the Museum Ship Valley Camp in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Among their exhibits is an Edmund Fitzgerald lifeboat.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point, Michigan, has the ship's bell on display. It was brought up from the depths in 1995.

Besides the museum, the oldest lighthouse on Lake Superior is here. The Light Station was established in 1849 and the current light tower was built in 1861.

It's estimated that there are at least 550 shipwrecks in Lake Superior, many undiscovered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed

In the maritime sailors' cathedral
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

For all the ships at sea 💗

International Memorial to the Underground Railroad, Detroit MI ~ September 2021

Installed in 2001 on the Detroit River, the Gateway to Freedom sculpture was created by Ed Dwight and stands 10 x 12 feet. It depicts eight escaping slaves guided by a conductor, modeled after George DeBaptiste. George was born free in Virginia to African-American parents and as an adult moved to Indiana and helped bring escaping slaves to Kentucky. Later he moved to Detroit and assisted freedom seekers across the river to Canada (his life story is fascinating, fyi).

Historians estimate that about 45,000 escaping slaves passed through Detroit on their way to Canada, Detroit serving as one of the last terminals of the Underground Railroad.

There is a companion sculpture (Tower of Freedom) across the river in Windsor, Canada, also by Ed Dwight, that we haven't had the pleasure of visiting yet.

(Besides being a well-known sculptor, Dwight was an air force jet pilot in 1962 when President Kennedy nominated him as an astronaut trainee. Dwight would have been the first African-American astronaut. After Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, NASA dropped Dwight from the program.)

Ed Dwight has two other well-known sculptures in Michigan: Rosa Parks in Grand Rapids and an  Underground Railroad sculpture in Battle Creek.

Battle Creek

Today it's more important than ever to remember our history.

(See the link below for photos and information on the largest Underground Railroad Sculpture in the U.S.)

Underground Railroad sculpture visit - Battle Creek

 

Ransom Eli Olds ~ June 3, 1864 - August 26, 1950

We've visited some R.E. Olds historic sites, mostly random finds during our travels 😊

He was born here in Geneva, Ohio in 1864. The house is gone.

He came to Lansing in 1880.

In 1899, Olds opened the Olds Motorworks in Detroit and tested the Curved Dash Oldsmobile Runabouts on Belle Isle.

The Lansing factory built on this site was later designated a National Historic Landmark but that wasn't enough to save it from the wrecking ball in 1979.

Along with the factory, the REO Clubhouse was also razed. It sounds like it was an amazing place and a wonderful community hub.

This mural is located across from the museum.

The small museum was really fun and informative. 

The home in which Olds was born was apparently once commemorated.

This is the famous curved dash mobile that gave rise to the "In My Merry Oldsmobile."

I never knew that the band REO Speedwagon got its name from this 😊

What a beauty.

Who never wanted to ride along on a running board 😊

The Toronado

Win this car.

The museum has acquired a few historical artifacts, not necessarily related to RE Olds.

That wrapped up our museum visit. 

Olds has a family mausoleum in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing.

He and his wife, Ursula Woodward, had four children, only two of whom lived to adulthood. Ralph lived one day, Mildred lived 12 days, and Gladys lived until she was 89 years old. They all reside here. Gladys' son, RE Olds Anderson, also rests here with his wife, Doris. The fourth child, Bernice, had three children of her own and is buried elsewhere.

RE Olds certainly left his mark on this country.