Places that connect you to the Fitz
Below are four places to visit that bring you in contact with artifacts from the Fitz. One even lets you tour a freighter.
Each place contained Fitz treasures and offered unique experiences
Come on, Michiganders! You've been saying your whole lives that you're going to make that trip up to the U.P. But most of you haven't, have you? Get off the couch. Go visit your state!
Crossing the 5-mile span of the Mackinac Bridge can be harrowing, especially in bad weather.
The night the Fitz went down, the bridge was forced to close when winds reached 85mph and tipped over a tractor trailer.
Chasing the Fitz - Four pilgrimages
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (GLSM) is the holy grail of sites for a number of reasons. One, is because it is located at the tip of Whitefish Bay, only a dozen miles from where the Fitz went down.
The lighthouse and Coast Guard station located there played a role in the events that night (the powerhouse flooded, disabling the lighthouse when it was much needed).
Once at the museum, the site and exhibits are well worth the trip.
Be sure to stop at The Inn in Paradise for pasties and a beer on the way back
Just don't spend so much time eating pasties and drinking beer that you then forget your turnoff to Tahquamenon Falls (which shouldn't be missed if you are up there, but we did.)
Don't forget to bring physical maps in case you get lost.We made the dumbass move of missing a turn and getting lost while low on gas, with a setting sun, no cell service and no map. The perfect start to a horror movie.
Travel vlogs for the Whitefish Point region
#2
The Soo Locks
Sault Saint Marie, MI
(It's on the way to Whitefish Point)
All ships traveling from Lake Superior to any of the other lakes must pass through the Soo Locks, making it's an ideal location for boat watching, particularly because there is a viewing platform for visitors to watch both the boats and lock operations from only a few feet away.
On the grounds is also a museum dedicated to the locks, plus the U.S. Weather Bureau Building, which houses public exhibits from the Fitz era, and is run by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society.
The locks are part museum, part working infrastructure
The entire town seemed to exist as a by-product of Great Lakes shipping
Travel vlogs for the Soo
Even though the National Museum of the Great Lakes his easily accessible, only three miles from downtown Toledo, I get the feeling it doesn't attract the number of visitors it deserves.
First, it has on display one of only two life rafts recovered from the Edmund Fitzgerald. Second, the freighter boat Col. James M. Schoonmaker has been turned into a museum. The entire boat. You board on a gangway and walk the boat yourself, peer into all its nooks and crannies. Of particular interest to me were the pilothouse and galley, with its unique U-shaped, orange-Formica dining counter.
In addition to artifacts from the Fitz, you can board and explore the freighter boat Col. James M. Schoonmaker
Travel vlogs for Toledo
First off, I hate rankings. They suck. Trying to rank things like these museums is impossible because the experiences are so different. But we humans LOVE to see things ranked. So the Dossin ends up #4.
The Dossin is a great museum. And extremely accessible, being only a few minutes from downtown Detroit on an island called Belle Isle.
The island itself is a wonderland, containing an aquarium, a conservatory, a nature center, many architectural gems, a golf course, beach, marshlands, gardens, a yacht club and a coast guard station, to name a few things.
The pilothouse of the William Clay Ford alone is worth the visit. The Ford's pilothouse is very similar to that of the Arthur Anderson's and contains the vintage equipment that would have been in use by the Anderson when it followed the Fitz that night.
Outside the museum walls, on display like a piece of sculpture is the anchor of the Fitz, lost in 1974 and retrieved as a relic in 1992.
The Dossin contains the intact pilothouse of the William Clay Ford, sister ship to the Arthur Anderson
On display at the Dossin is the Fitz's anchor, lost in the Detroit River in 1974.
Travel vlogs for Belle Isle
BONUS
The S.S. Arthur M. Anderson during winter layup
Coming Soon
