HOLLAND, Mich. — The most mysterious of all shipwrecks doesn't exist at the bottom of distant oceans or seas. Instead, it's lost somewhere in the Great Lakes.
French explorer Robert de La Salle's Le Griffon went missing somewhere on the Great Lakes in 1679. In the 340 years since the barque's disappearance, 22 claims of discovery have been made on it.
One of the claims has yet to be debunked, and that's the one made on Canada's Manitoulin Island, which is part of the Province of Ontario and located in the northeastern corner of Lake Huron.
Local shipwreck explorer Valerie van Heest spent a week on Manitoulin Island in August of 2018 searching for Le Griffon. Her adventure is set be featured on national television as part of an hour-long program entitled Expedition Unknown on the Discovery Channel.
"It was about a year ago when the producers for Expedition Unknown reached out to me and asked if i knew of anybody mounting a search to look for the famous lost Le Griffon," said van Heest, award-winning author and Director of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association. "That was a surprising phone call because we'd actually been talking about our group, mounting a search for that wreck."
van Heest says the Discovery Channel caught her at the perfect time because she has just wrapped up all the research she was doing on Le Griffon.
"I wanted to go up to Manitoulin Island and explore the notion that a ship that grounded on shore more than a century ago could possibly be the Le Griffon," added van Heest. "I laid out my plan to the producers and within just a couple of weeks, they were all over it."
van Heest says the producers scheduled a trip for her to meet them and the host of Expedition Unknown, Josh Gates, on Manitoulin Island in.
"I've been involved in quite a few reality television shows as they pertain to shipwrecks and not all of them are really reality," quipped van Heest. "This show, Expedition Unknown, was very concerned about portraying the real history of Le Griffon.
"i was very happy to be involved with a program that wanted to convey true history, whether or not we found the wreck."
van Heest says those who choose to watch the program will be taken on the full expedition as they explore what remains of a shipwreck on Manitoulin Island believed to be what's left of Le Griffon.
"Part of the program will also show us out on the water trying to find the other portion of that ship," added van Heest.
van Heest says "The program will also feature our group spending time in a museum where we go through artifacts collected from the wreck that was found near shore; we'll go in search of a cave where the remains of what we believe to be the crew members from potentially Le Griffon were found, and we'll head out on the water to do some side-scan operations.
"We just might find something, but viewers will have to watch to see what we find."
In February 2015, 13 On Your Side featured the Manitoulin Island Le Griffon claim as part of an Our Michigan Life report.
Expedition Unknown airs at 9:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 8 on the Discovery Channel.
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