Center for Underwater Science preserves state’s maritime history beneath Lake Michigan: IU News

MICHIGAN CITY, Indiana – Charles Beeker is on a mission to preserve Indiana’s maritime past by preserving the underwater site of a shipwreck in Lake Michigan.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources and IU will hold a public ceremony to designate the Muskegon wreck site as an Indiana Nature Preserve. Photo provided by IU Center for Underwater Research

“We have a great maritime history and these shipwrecks are representative of that maritime past here in Michigan City,” said Beeker, director of the Center for Underwater Sciences at Indiana University in Bloomington.

In a phone conversation from a boat anchored about 35 feet above the wreck of the Muskegon, Beeker said IU and the state are working together to protect the site for science and the public.

“We are really fortunate to receive ongoing funding from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to support IU,” said Beeker, a clinical professor at the School of Public Health-Bloomington.

“We have several years of funding to come here and continue to operate. It’s a great place for our new divers and a great place for the public.”

Beeker and the center have been studying and working to protect it since 2000. This week, a team of graduate students and researchers donned their scuba gear and dove down to collect data for research and to shoot video and photos.

“We are now entering our second day here with an IU field school that is conducting a documentation of the site, looking not only at the archaeology but also the biology of the site,” Beeker said.

A grant from the DNR will fund research and improvements, including mooring lines, marker buoys and a 400-pound limestone memorial with a bronze plaque that Beeker’s team will place in the depths near the remains of the sunken ship.

The sinking of the Muskegon

According to the DNR, the wooden-hulled ship was unloading a load of sand at a dock in Michigan City when it caught fire and sank in October 1910.

Unlike other shipwrecks of the time, no one was injured or killed in the Muskegon fire. The fire was probably caused by kerosene or oil residue near the boiler.

The sunken ship blocked the docks until June 1911, when locals refloated it, towed it away and sank it in deeper waters, according to the DNR.

Preservation of the wreck

The Muskegon now lies on the bottom of Lake Michigan, about a quarter mile offshore near Mount Baldy in Indiana Dunes National Park.

A 3D rendering of the Muskegon’s wreck site shows the approximately 120-foot-long wooden hull along with the boiler, propeller, shaft and other metal parts still lying on the sandy bottom.

The Muskegon is the first shipwreck in Indiana to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Beeker said. On Thursday, the site will officially be declared an Indiana Nature Preserve.

This shipwreck is an important reminder of Indiana’s place in maritime history, he said. Before the advent of air travel and highways, Beeker said, ships on the Great Lakes were an important means of transporting people and goods throughout the Midwest and Canada.

“This was a big port at the turn of the century and a popular tourist destination, with boats and trains,” Beeker said. “You know, if you look on eBay for historic postcards from Michigan City, they all have something to do with shipping and the ships that come through here.”

This work is part of more than three decades of ongoing research Beeker has conducted at IU. He has directed the Academic Diving Program since 1984 and became founding director of the Center for Underwater Science in 1991.

Beeker said the center’s work has helped transform three shipwrecks in California and one in Florida into underwater national parks. The center also identified nine ships and placed them on a “Shipwreck Trail” in the Florida Keys and created five “living museums” in the Dominican Republic.

“After all we have accomplished internationally,” Beeker said, “we are now so fortunate to be able to work within our state to recognize our own maritime heritage.”

Public dedication

The Indiana DNR and IU will hold a public ceremony to designate the Muskegon wreck site as an Indiana Nature Preserve.

When: 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time (2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT) on Thursday, July 18.

Where: Old Lighthouse Museum, 100 Heisman Harbor Road in Michigan City, Indiana.