Open Spaces : fishandwildlife

The Fish & Wildlife Service You Don't Know: The Edmund Fitzgerald

Posted At : February 19, 2012 11:48 AM | Posted By : Jonsson, Katherine E
Related Categories: EdmundFitzgerald, fishandwildlife, fws, news_blog

For the past several years, David Klinger has been putting the “people” back into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The NCTC writer-editor, a veteran of 34 years with the agency, has been ferreting out some of the untold stories of the wildlife agency in a running feature called, “The Fish and Wildlife Service You Don’t Know,” that appears in Fish and Wildlife News and other publications.  “They’re a cross between in-house chatter and ‘urban legend’ – all true, most largely unremarked and unacknowledged, every one of them fascinating,” says Klinger.

This is the first in a series of short features about little-known aspects of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, previously printed in Fish and Wildlife Service News.

In the underwater search for the subject of the 1976 pop tune of the same name -- the Great Lakes ore boat Edmund Fitzgerald -- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service played a minor, though memorable role, 14 years after the mammoth ship plunged to the bottom of Lake Superior.

Edmund Fitzgerald The SS Edmund Fitzgerald in the St. Mary's River in May, 1975. Photo: NOAA

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dustin's Gravatar verry interesting !!!!!!!!!!!!
# Posted By dustin | 2/19/12 2:09 PM
Gary Curtis FWS Yreka, CA's Gravatar The Grayling was skippered by Clifford Wilson at the time-one of the best Captains I have ever worked with. I worked on the Grayling for a decade sampling fish in Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron but was not on this historic trip. The story of the Fitz was always on my mind when we we out in big seas on Lake Superior..which was more often than not. Clifford has passed, but his memory has not.
# Posted By Gary Curtis FWS Yreka, CA | 2/21/12 7:16 PM
J Cooper's Gravatar I flew into the Soo as a Coast Guard seaman just at the end of this. We had one of the lifeboats in our maintenance sheds. This and the song will always be in my memory.
# Posted By J Cooper | 3/13/12 4:03 AM
Edmund Fitzgerald's Gravatar S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald 37 Year Anniversary
November 10, 2012
RIVER ROUGE — A memorial service is planned for Saturday November 10, 2012 to remember the 29 men who died when the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975.
The ceremony is set for 6 to 8 p.m. and the heated tent open at 4:30 p.m. for viewing Edmund Fitzgerald artifacts, near the Mariners Memorial Lighthouse at Belanger Park, off Belanger Park Drive and Marion.
The event is held in River Rouge because that’s the city where the vessel was built in 1957 and ’58.
Several speakers will give their memories of the ship, including people who helped construct it and relatives of some of the deceased crewmen.
Artifacts, photographs and videos also will be on display and you can talk to the Fitz Ship Builders, past Crew Members and Fitz Family Members.
At 7:10 p.m. — the time the ship sank — a wreath will be tossed into the Detroit River. A bell will be rung 29 times in memory of each person who died.
A plaque presentation and lantern lighting is planned. Food and Refreshments will be provided free of charge.
Event organizer Roscoe Clark has a Web site devoted to the vessel, which contains several video clips and photos of the ship.
Earlier in the day, an Edmund Fitzgerald open house will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. at the River Rouge Historical Museum, 10750 W. Jefferson Ave.
This year, the service will be web cast free of charge for those viewers all across the US and Canada.
For more information and location call Roscoe Clark at (810) 519-2148.
This is a special program held each year and is free of charge. All new this year
# Posted By Edmund Fitzgerald | 9/9/12 3:43 PM
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Last updated: June 21, 2012