Wisconsin Unveils Memorial Honoring Edmund Fitzgerald Crew Fifty Years After Sinking

A new memorial in Washburn, Wisconsin honors the 29 crew members who perished when the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior during a violent storm on November 10, 1975. The memorial features a functional weather vane with the ship's profile and a base made from a repurposed tower from the Ashland Oredock, and was dedicated on November 1, 2025. The Edmund Fitzgerald, launched in 1958, was one of the largest and most reliable freighters on the Great Lakes, known for transporting iron ore. On its final voyage, the ship encountered 35-foot waves and gale-force winds; despite the captain's reassurance to a nearby ship, it vanished without a distress signal and now rests in two large pieces 530 feet underwater. Investigations by the U.S. Coast Guard and NTSB could not determine a definitive cause for the sinking. The ship's story remains iconic, immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot's song and remembered annually on the anniversary of the tragedy.