Remembering the Fitz: Two annual ceremonies on each end of Lake Superior this weekend draw hundreds to remember the Edmund Fitzgerald and its 29 crew members. At Split Rock Lighthouse in Minnesota, the lighthouse and buildings will open from 11 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., when there will be an outdoor ceremony near the base of the lighthouse tower. A bell will toll 30 times – once for each Fitz crewman as his name is read and once for all mariners lost at sea. Following the ceremony, the Fresnel lens will be lit and visitors allowed to enter the tower with the beacon on. On the eastern tip of the Lake at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point in Michigan, an indoor ceremony will remember the lost crew with talks and with 30 rings on the bell recovered from the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1995, thanks to the request of several crew family survivors, including Cheryl Rozman, daughter of lost crew member Ransom Cundy. Cheryl, a longtime supporter of the museum and its efforts to preserve the Fitz’s memory, died this spring and will be remembered at the ceremony. Meanwhile, Fred Stonehouse, Marquette-based maritime historian, will give a lecture on “Metamorphosis: How The Edmund Fitzgerald Went From Fact To Great Lakes Legend,” at 11 a.m. Nov. 10 at the Mariners’ Church of Detroit, as part of its well-attended annual remembrance. To learn more about the Nov. 10, 1975, tragedy, you can read a 2001 Lake Superior Magazine story by Hugh E. Bishop, who delves into the speculated causes of the wreck. A 2015 story features the reminiscences of a first-time sailor on the Great Lakes that night and the Duluth anchorman who broke the story of the loss to the world.
Settlement Made: Sixty workers exposed to dangerous levels of lead while working on the Hebert C. Jackson at Fraser Shipyards in 2016 will get a $7.5 million settlement from the shipyards, its parent company and Interlake Steamship Co., which owns the freighter, BusinessNorth reports. The agreement was announced Wednesday and ended three pending federal lawsuits. OSHA has already charged Fraser Shipyards for the exposure, first leveling $1.4 million in charges and then reducing that to $700,000 in an agreement that required adopting a new safety plan. “This agreement, and earlier settlement agreements with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration reached with input from unions representing our workers, ensures that we can move forward with a strong commitment to employee protection and business viability, in partnership with OSHA and everyone who earns a living at our 126-year-old family-owned company in Superior,” James Farkas, president and COO of Fraser Industries, said in a release announcing the settlement. “Our business depends on taking the health and safety of our people seriously.”
Local Stages at Play: We’re heading into the main season for plays and productions around the Lake Superior region. Washburn, Wisconsin’s StageNorth launched its latest production on Thursday. Artist-in-residence, Diane Lutz, directs the local Groundlings in the Tony-award winning Stephen Sondheim musical, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (in photo). The Thursday-Sunday shows run this weekend and next. The Duluth Playhouse’s main stage season starts Nov. 26 with “Beauty and the Beast.” In Thunder Bay, Magnus Theatre’s fall-winter productions started with "The Rocky Horror Show," which ends this weekend, and will be followed by Michael Shepherd’s take on the Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol” beginning Dec. 6.
1 Ticket, 8 Attractions: Visit Duluth recently announced its Duluth Discount Pass, a way for locals or visitors to get the best deal for seeing eight top attractions in the city. The 3-day version of the pass gives a 50 percent discount on all eight attractions, but must be used within three consecutive days. The annual version gives a 25 percent discount, but can be used once at each of the sites during one year. The passes cover the Duluth Depot, Duluth Children’s Museum, Edgewater Water Park, Glensheen, Lake Superior Zoo, Plan3t Extreme Air Park, Solve Entertainment and Spirit Mountain. The 3-day pass costs $34 for children 2-12 and $54 for teens and adults; the annual pass costs $49 for 2-12 year olds and $70 for teens and adults. The passes, once purchased, are uploaded to a smartphone. Visit Duluth invested $20,000 to create and promote the platform for the new passes.
A Rare Breed: The Seine River First Nation in Ontario near the U.S.-Canada border hosts Grey Raven Ranch, which uses rare Lac La Croix ponies to teach about Ojibwe heritage and culture and is on a mission to save the small horses indigenous to the region. They have genetic ties to prehistoric horses living here well before the arrival of Europeans. Indian Country Today posted a story about the horses and ranch by our own editor, Konnie LeMay (former managing editor for Indian Country Today when it was based in Rapid City, S.D.). Each fall, Darcy Whitecrow and Kim Campbell, volunteer keepers of the ranch, bring the horses to a campsite in Quetico Provincial Park to teach about heritage and the horses (which is where Serene Whitecrow is leading one of the horse into a lake). The small breed, called “ponies” because the breed standard is less than 14 hands high (a “hand” being 4 inches), are actually sturdy little horses well adapted to our northern climate, growing enough hair to remind you of bears, Kim says, and with nostrils that partially close against the winds. In the photo here, Naabesim (Stud Colt) doesn’t mind the winter at Seine River. Ojibwe elders note the horses in local villages for generations before European arrival. It is estimated that fewer than 200 horses with this lineage still exist, 11 of which live at Grey Raven Ranch.
Cold Rink, Hot Stuff: The hottest performance ticket in Thunder Bay this week was to the sold-out Tuesday opening event of Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling, according to Diane Imrie in the Chronicle-Journal. Sixty teams with the top men and women in curling from around the globe are at the city’s Tournament Centre for this third stop on the Grand Slam. Diane outlines some of the major curling events hosted by the city over the years, including the Canadian men’s curling championship in 1960. The Grand Slam Tour Challenge continues through Sunday. Thunder Bay, known for producing hockey players, also produces great curlers, and curling has a strong following. On Pinty Grand Slam’s Facebook page, Kevan Stranges noted that by noon on Wednesday, the seats in the auditorium were nearly full. Photos also show how far fans go to support their favorites – like the cutout faces of Team McCarville under Kristi McCarville of Thunder Bay. Team Shuster of the Twin Ports (in top photo), the 2018 Olympic Gold Medal winner, is also competing. The top competitors in this stopover take home $25,000 and the chance to continue in the Grand Slam, reports Devin Heroux for the CBC.
Taking It to the Limits: Upper Limits Media has been unveiling some super cool 360° views of sites around the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, such as Bond Falls at Paulding, Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park and Copper Peak Ski Jump (in photo). You can zoom and turn the images posted on Facebook with your computer mouse or by shifting your smartphone.
Poticia, Pasties, Persians Plus: Time to start think about those holiday gifts as we enter the U.S. Thanksgiving countdown and notice more of those white flakes floating around outside. To prime the pump for local gift ideas, let us reintroduce you to a story in Lake Superior Magazine by Molly Hoeg talking about some of the local foods that most frequently become holiday care packages for those living away from the Lake Superior neighborhood of their youth. Poticia, Pasties, Persians, Trenary Toast and Yooper Bars topped our list from all four shores. Do you have other “must send” foods? Let us know at edit@lakesuperior.com.
Here’s the Real Thing: To those of you who get our Wednesday events newsletter, the link to a commemoration of the end of World War I at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth went to last year’s event. This year, 34th Infantry Division “Red Bull” Band of the Minnesota Army National Guard will perform 2 p.m. Saturday in the Mitchell Auditorium in a concert free to veterans and $5 for the general public.
Photo & graphic credits: David Conklin/Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum; Jamey Ritter; Amy Larsen; Grey Raven Ranch; Anil Mungal; Upper Limits Media; Courtesy Sunrise Bakery.