MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — Charles Beeker is on a mission to protect Indiana’s maritime past by preserving the underwater site of a Lake Michigan shipwreck.
“We have a huge maritime history, and these shipwrecks are representative of that maritime past here in Michigan City,” said Beeker, director of the Indiana University Center for Underwater Science in Bloomington.
Speaking by phone from a boat moored about 35 feet above the wreckage of the Muskegon, Beeker said IU and the state are teaming up to protect this site for science and the public.
“We’re really happy to have ongoing grant money from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to help IU,” said Beeker, a clinical professor in the School of Public Health-Bloomington.
“We’re funded for multiple years to come up here and continue to work. It’s a great site for our new divers, and it’s a great site for the public.”
Beeker and the center have been studying and working to protect the Muskegon shipwreck since 2000. This week, a team of graduate students and researchers have been donning their scuba gear and diving down to collect data for research and shoot video and photos.
“We’re diving into our second day here now with an IU field school doing documentation on the site, looking at not only the archaeology but also the biology of the site,” Beeker said.
A DNR grant is funding research and improvements that include mooring lines, marker buoys and a 400-pound limestone monument with a bronze plaque that Beeker’s team is placing in the deep near what remains of the sunken ship.
The sinking of the Muskegon
The wooden-hulled Muskegon was unloading a cargo of sand at a dock in Michigan City when it caught fire and sunk in October 1910, according to the DNR.
Unlike other shipwrecks of the era, no one was hurt or killed in the fire that claimed the Muskegon. The blaze was believed to have been sparked by kerosine or oil residue near the boiler.
The sunken vessel blocked the docks until June 1911 when, according to the DNR, the locals refloated it, towed it away and scuttled it in deeper waters.
Preserving the wreckage
The Muskegon now rests on the bottom of Lake Michigan, about a quarter mile off the shoreline near Mount Baldy in the Indiana Dunes National Park.
A 3D rendering of the Muskegon wreckage site shows about 120 feet of wooden hull, along with the boiler, propellor, shaft and other metal parts that still rest on the sandy bottom.
The Muskegon is Indiana’s first shipwreck listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Beeker said. On Thursday, the site officially becomes an Indiana Nature Preserve.
This shipwreck is an important reminder of Indiana’s place in maritime history, he said. Before air travel and interstates, Beeker said ships moving on the Great Lakes were a vital means of transporting people and goods throughout the Midwest and Canada.
“This was a big port, big tourism destination in the turn of the century, with boats coming in and trains coming here,” Beeker said. “You know, just look on eBay for historic postcards in Michigan City, and it’s all related to maritime and the vessels coming through here.”
This work is part of more than three decades of ongoing research Beeker has done at IU. He has directed the Academic Diving Program since 1984 and became the founding director of the Center for Underwater Science in 1991.
Beeker said the center’s work has helped turn three shipwrecks in California and one in Florida into underwater state parks. The center also identified and placed nine ships on a “Shipwreck Trail” in the Florida Keys and created five “living museums” in the Dominican Republic.
“With all we’ve done internationally,” Beeker said, “we’re so happy now to be working within our state to acknowledge our own maritime heritage.”
Public dedication
The Indiana DNR and IU will host a public ceremony to dedicate the site of the Muskegon wreckage as an Indiana Nature Preserve.
When: 1:30 to 4 p.m. Central Daylight Time (2:30 to 5 p.m. EDT) on Thursday, July 18.
Where: Old Lighthouse Museum, 100 Heisman Harbor Road in Michigan City, Indiana.