Searchers Find Wreck of Luxury Steamer Lost in Lake Michigan Over 150 Years Ago

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Shipwreck World, a group that locates shipwrecks globally, announced that a team led by Illinois shipwreck hunter Paul Ehorn has discovered the wreck of the Lac La Belle, a luxury steamer that sank in a Lake Michigan gale in 1872. Ehorn has been searching for the wreck since 1965 and used a clue from fellow wreck hunter Ross Richardson to narrow down the search grid, finding the ship using side-scan sonar in October 2022.

Why it matters

The discovery of the Lac La Belle wreck, which has remained undiscovered for over 150 years, highlights the ongoing efforts of shipwreck hunters to uncover the thousands of wrecks that still lie undiscovered in the Great Lakes. With invasive quagga mussels slowly destroying many of these historic wrecks, the race is on to locate and document as many as possible before they are lost forever.

The details

The Lac La Belle was a 217-foot luxury steamer that ran between Cleveland and Lake Superior. It sank in the St. Clair River in 1866 after a collision but was later raised and reconditioned. On October 13, 1872, the ship left Milwaukee for Grand Haven, Michigan, in a gale, but began taking on water uncontrollably. The captain turned the ship back towards Milwaukee, but huge waves extinguished the boilers, and the ship went down stern-first around 5 a.m. One lifeboat capsized, killing 8 people, but the other lifeboats made it to shore between Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin.

• The Lac La Belle sank on October 13, 1872.
• Ehorn has been searching for the wreck since 1965.
• The wreck was discovered in October 2022.

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