Honoring the Crew Who Died on the Edmund Fitzgerald

The church bell rang 29 times — after swimmers finished Edmund Fitzgerald's route to mark 50 years of sinking

The Old Mariners Church in Detroit, Mich., was a fitting place to honour an epic journey for a group of swimmers. A day earlier, they also finished a swim that followed the intended route of the Edmund Fitzgerald to mark the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the American freighter.

Honoring the crew who died on the Edmund Fitzgerald

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior in November 1975, a tragedy immortalized in a Gordon Lightfoot song. The tragedy claimed the lives of 29 crew members, and efforts are taking place throughout the year to ensure the victims are never forgotten.

How Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center remembers Edmund Fitzgerald

DULUTH — Often, when people see the Edmund Fitzgerald exhibit at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, they simply have to hear the song. "One time I had the crap scared out of me, because I thought I was completely alone in the museum," Kaylee Matuszak told the News Tribune in 2023. "It was the middle of winter, and then all of a sudden the song started playing." Matuszak has a unique perspective on Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 ballad, being b…