Missing 19th-Century Steamer Found in Lake Michigan

A Lake Michigan mystery that captivated shipwreck hunters for decades has finally been put to rest, the Guardian reports. The long-lost passenger steamer Lac La Belle, which went down in a storm in 1872, has been located about 20 miles off the Wisconsin shoreline between Racine and Kenosha, according to Shipwreck World. The find actually happened in October 2022, but search leader and veteran diver Paul Ehorn waited to go public until his team could gather enough video to build a 3D model of the wreck—a task delayed by rough conditions and scheduling issues until last summer, Ehorn tells the AP.

Ehorn, 80, has been hunting shipwrecks since his teens and says he has chased the Lac La Belle's trail since 1965. A tip from fellow researcher and author Ross Richardson in 2022 sharply narrowed his search grid; using side-scan sonar, Ehorn says he located the ship within two hours on the lake. He calls the work "like solving a puzzle," though both he and Richardson declined to disclose the specific clue, citing how competitive Great Lakes wreck hunting has become.

The Lac La Belle left Milwaukee for Grand Haven, Michigan, on an October night in 1872 with 53 passengers and crew and a cargo that included barley, flour, pork, and whiskey. Within hours, the steamer began taking on water. A storm extinguished its boilers and drove the vessel south; lifeboats were launched around 5am. One overturned near shore, killing eight people, while others made it to the Wisconsin coast. Built in 1864 and already once raised and rebuilt after a previous sinking in 1866, the 217-foot luxury steamer now rests on the lakebed with its hull intact—surprising given the ship's "violent demise," the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports—but cabins gone and its exterior layered in mussels, Ehorn says, though interior oak woodwork remains in good condition.