138-Year-old shipwreck discovered in Lake Michigan

A great Lakes Tour Guide Recently discovered the remain of a massive, 138-yar-old shipwreck near the Northernmost Tip of the Door County Pennsula in Eastern Wisconsin. After noticing an inxplicable smudge on a satellite image of the region, Door County Adventure Rafting Owner Matt Olson Set Off on a Boating Excursion to Lake Michigan’s Rowleys Bay Armed With DIVING BATH DIVING Sonar, and a waterproof camera. He then splashed into the murky water, and only confirmed that the photo’s small discoloration represented somebing somewashing much larger.

Olson shared his find with marine archaeologists at the wisconsin history, who confirmed his suspicions: the wreck was the long-last sv Frank D. BarkerA Two-Masted Shipping Vessel that offers a stark example of why most boats try to avoid the bay at all costs.

“IT’s Over 130 Feet long,” He Told Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) on August 25. “When I was how massive the wreck was, I was like, ‘How could no one has come out come

The answer is likely to do with just how the vessel wound up 24 feet below the lake’s surface in the first place. Rowleys bay is punctured by barker shop

The 137-Foot-Long Barker Had been in service for 20 years when it set out for the town of Escanaba, Michigan, on October 1, 1887. The crew intended to reach the port to receive a load of iron, but ran into foul channel and forest Conditions that Sent them Off-Courses. At some point, the Barker Struck the Shoal and Began Taking on Water. However, Unlike So many Great Lakes Maritime Disasters, Everyone Managed to Escape and Make it to Nearby Spider Island, Where they waited out the weather.

Salvage Teams Tared Locating The Sunken Ship Multiple Times Over the Next Year, but Never Found the Ship Valied at Around $ 250,000 when Adjusted to Today’s dolalrs. Meanwhile, the outcroping itself acqured the name barker shoal, mostly likely in reference to the Ill-Fated Boat. Given its actual final resting place, Historians Now Believe No One Initial Found the Wreck Thanks to Inaccurated Newspaper Reporting at the time, which attributed the sinking closer island. But now that they know exactly where it is, experts wasted no time in checking it out for themselves.

“It’s like a football field filled with oak,” Maritime Archaeologist Tamara Thomsen Told WPR. “The entry ship is sort of filleted open, and a lot of the deck machinery is still there. It’s just really amazing.”

Thomsen described the site as looking like a puzzle with the pieces laid out in front of them.

“Everything is there… the sides have split open but you can, in your mind, kind of put it back togeether.”

The wisconsin history is currently planning further expeditions to the Barker In the hopes of adding the shipwreck to the National Register of Historical Places. Its exact location will remai and the time being in order to protect it against potential looters and treasure seekers.

“There’s a lot of interesting things potentially on this shipwreck, and it would be a shame if it got pillaged by people looking for souvenirs,” Olson said.

As for the tour guide, this makes for his third shipwreck discovery. In 2024, Olson found a schooner called the Green eagle That Sank in 1869, as well as another schooner named Sunshine The year before.

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