SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. — The most famous shipwreck on the Great Lakes is turning 50 years old next year and a unique commemoration is in the works.
Open water swimmers will be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald by participating in a 17-stage, 411-mile relay swim next year.
Teams of four relay swimmers will be symbolically completing the intended route of the Edmund Fitzgerald from Superior, WI to Detroit.
It's called the Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim and it is set to be the subject of a documentary film.
The swim is tentatively planned to start above the wreck site on Lake Superior and will finish at Belle Isle Beach in Detroit.
Swimmers will carry iron ore pellets from the dock where the ship took its last load in Superior, WI.
A total of 68 swimmers are asked to participate. Registration to become a swimmer in the event opens at 9 a.m. on Monday, June 10, 2024.
Jim Dreyer, who has swam across all five Great Lakes himself, is organizing the historic event.
Dreyer shared some of the highlights of the event in a release Monday:
- “The swim is tentatively planned to start in Lake Superior from above the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck, subject to permit approval. Here, the swimmers will leave a memorial to the crew resting below in a very moving ceremony. Then, participants will swim to shore at Whitefish Point, the site of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.”
- “The swim will finish at Belle Isle Beach in Detroit where our delivery of iron ore is presented to receiving dignitaries. Then, a march from the finish line to the Mariners’ Church of Detroit is tentatively planned, pending approval of permits. In a memorial service, the church bell will be rung 29 times for each crew member of the Edmund Fitzgerald, just as it was 50 years ago.”
- “Participants will swim the St. Marys River to Sault Ste. Marie, which may allow them the chance to safely get up close and personal with giant freighters on either side of the Soo Locks.”
- “Participants will ride the currents and swim the entire length of the St. Clair River.”
- “There will be significant open water crossings of Whitefish Bay, Lake Huron between Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas, across the mouth of Saginaw Bay, and across Lake St. Clair to Detroit.”
“The Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim presents epic, once-in-a-lifetime experiences for up to 68 swimmers to be part of history, play a role in a documentary film, and swim where no one has ever swum before and may never swim again,” Dreyer said.
The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior during a violent storm on Nov. 10, 1974. All 29 crew members were killed. The wreck still lies about 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, MI.
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