Description

By: Wayne Louis Kadar

This book covers two aspects of Great Lakes maritime history: lighthouses and shipwrecks.

It includes historical information on several lighthouses located around the Great Lakes; their history, construction and location. From the Mamajuda Lighthouse in the Detroit River that no longer exists, the Rock of Ages Lighthouse on Isle Royale, Lake Erie’s Buffalo Harbor Lights and the South Fox Island Light in northern Lake Michigan.

Also presented within these pages are Great Lakes vessels that sailed the Great Lakes and met with disaster; grounding in the shallows, capsizing, breaking apart or sinking. Ships like the 603-foot Daniel J. Morrell that broke in two during a severe Lake Huron storm off the Point Aux Barques Lighthouse, the Great Lakes Freighter Buffalo that ran into the Detroit River Lighthouse and the Frontenac that rammed the Buffalo Light, both in clear weather. Other shipwrecks that occurred near lighthouses include the collision and sinking of the freighter Cedarville near the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse and the sinking of the 729-foot Edmund Fitzgerald near the Whitefish Point Lighthouse.

Great Lake Maritime history is filled with stories of heroism, tragedy, successes and failures. Presented here are just a few events that occurred in the shadow of a Great Lakes Lighthouse.