This Piece of the Edmund Fitzgerald Had Been Underwater Longer Than The Ship

At this point, if you grew up in Michigan, you know of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It's a story that Great Lakes folklore has told about and sung about for years. It's basically Michigan's Titanic story. Many people don't even realize that a piece of the Fitz was sitting on the bottom of the Detroit River before the ship ever sank in Lake Superior... could you imagine?

The Detroit River Chapter of the Fitzgerald

It was January 7, 1974, when the Fitzgerald was heading through the Detroit area, when it lost its 12,000-pound bow anchor near Belle Isle in the Detroit River. It didn't just get fished out the next day either. It stayed down there for years, in busy shipping waters, in Detroit’s backyard, while the world sailed on around it.

January 7, 1974 The Day the Anchor Dropped

On November 10, 1975, the Fitz met her unfaithful night in the brutal Lake Superior storm that we have all heard about. By then, the anchor had already been in the water for over two years.

Raising the Anchor in 1992

The best part of the news: divers located and raised the anchor in 1992, and it now lives, where it should, at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle. You can actually look at a piece of the Edmund Fitzgerald, not just a plaque associated with the faithful ship.

It is very cool, yet sad to think about, that a piece of the Edmund Fitzgerald had been underwater longer than the actual ship itself had been underwater. However, at this point, the Edmund Fitzgerald has actually been underwater far longer than the anchor has been underwater.

It's a sad Michigan tale, but shows the true strength of the Great Lakes.

@ssedmundfitzgerald From the vault! PT 1 📹: July 21 1992 (old video) #edmundfitzgerald #fyp #lakesuperior ♬ original sound - Edmund Fitzgerald