Honoring the 29 men and the wives, the sons and the daughters

John Anderson, Bayfield County Judge, speaks at the dedication of a memorial overlooking Washburn, Wi harbor for the 29 men who lost their lives on the iron ore carrier the Edmund Fitzgerald Nov. 10, 1975.(Rocky Barker photo)

I began my journalism career 50 years ago one block east of where I now live in Washburn, Wi on the shores of Lake Superior. I was a terrible writer and reporter as the gales of November came early that year.

We all know the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald today thanks to Gordon Lightfoot's remarkable song. But on November 10 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes seemed to be a phenomenon of the past. So when I went to work that Monday at the Washburn Times I was more worried about selling advertising than a Superior disaster.

But when I went home that night to Ashland the winds were blowing across Chequamegon Bay at speeds of 70 miles per hour. The waves came across all four lanes of U.S. 2 west of town. The first sign came during the Dallas Cowboys-Kansas City Chiefs game on Monday night Football. The Duluth station broke in to report that a freighter had gone missing on the lake.

The next morning the Ashland Daily Press reported on the front page that the Edmund Fitzgerald was missing. Editor Virginia Burtness had been monitoring Coast Guard radio communications and heard that a freighter was missing. John Chapple, the legendary former owner of the Daily Press, was working the night desk and he got the name through sources and by digging up information about the ship.

I drove back to Washburn to find Chequamegon Bay filled with ore boats. They had sought shelter from the storm. Of course today, I would have shot a picture of the boats later in my career but that day I was oblivious.

I walked into the office, which was a sad place. Our typographer Kathy Kalmon was absent. Her father Allen was a cook on the Edmund Fitzgerald. Printer Joe Pemberton told me that his brother in law Mike Armagost was on the boat. The tragedy had reached into our community just as it had in towns and cities across the Great Lakes.

A year later The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was number 2 on the Billboard chart and the entire world knew the story.

Sons and daughters and other relatives attended the dedication Saturday and I got to meet several of them. They were emotional but pleased that Washburn had built the memorial that will honor their loss. And they appreciated the help and friendship the late Lightfoot gave them.