Swimmers to Swim the Route of the Edmund Fitzgerald as a Tribute to Its 50th Anniversary

The year 2025 marks 50 years since the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Did you think it was gonna sneak by us without being recognized? No way. To commemorate this half-century event, open-water swimmers will follow the Fitz’s intended journey, from Lake Superior to Detroit.

This tribute to the 29 sailors who lost their lives in that historic shipwreck includes a 17-stage, 411-mile relay swim from the Edmund Fitzgerald’s underwater grave in Lake Superior all the way to Detroit. Not only will all participating swimmers take the Edmund Fitz’s intended route,  but they will also simulate its cargo delivery which was also lost in the sinking.

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How will they do that?

The swimmers will be relaying iron ore pellets taken from the exact same dock in Superior, Wisconsin, where the Fitz unloaded its last shipment.

That doesn’t end here. The swimmers are raising funds in order to preserve the Whitefish Point Light Station, Lake Superior’s oldest lighthouse, operating since 1849. This is the lighthouse that lost its light thanks to a power outage, that may have saved the Fitz if not for that unfortunate twist of fate.

The swim will start Saturday, July 26 and wrap up on August 27. There will be a memorial service the next day, August 28, at Mariners Church of Detroit, where the church bell will “chime 29 times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald”.