Since 1994, Lake Superior Magazine has given out its annual Achievement Award to individuals and groups who have contributed significantly to Lake Superior and its peoples. This year, we honor the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association for more than a half-century of collecting, preserving and sharing Lake Superior’s maritime hertiage.
LSMMA’s new logo.
During its more than half century of existence, the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association has been vital in creating a free public museum celebrating maritime heritage, donated two football fields worth of archives that helped to create a new researchable maritime collection, took over an annual divers event to create a popular celebration of Great Lakes seafaring heritage, and now has taken on the stewardship and revitalization of a 1901 deteriorating lighthouse.
Not a bad legacy for an all-volunteer association with a part-time administrator.
“Its key role is preserving maritime history around Lake Superior. … That’s where our strength is,” says the current LSMMA Board President David Schauer, “being the volunteer and fundraising arm of the visitor center.”
David is talking about LSMMA’s partnership with the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and that includes a museum-quality element thanks to the artifacts and archives under the care of LSMMA. The relationship with the maritime visitor center is quite symbiotic. In fact, both LSMMA and the center started at the same time.
Pat Labadie was director at the visitor center when he founded LSMMA. As a federal entity, the Army Corps did not have a fundraising ability, so Pat knew that creating a sort of “friends of” group for the center would be vital to its growth. He also envisioned local control of the artifacts, so if the Corps decided it could not continue to operate the visitor center – one of the first of its kind the Corps undertook – the artifacts would remain local.
“That was a real gift to start the visitor center and get the association off the ground,” says Pat, adding about the early LSMMA members, “We had quite a team of enthusiasts.”
BARB LeMASURIER
The gift shop in the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center is under the sponsorship of LSMMA.
The free-admission maritime visitor center at the base of the Aerial Lift Bridge, thanks in part to LSMMA but also to the dedicated U.S. Army Corps of Engineers staff, has become a true gem. Today it boasts interactive displays, including a do-it-yourself Soo Locks interactive video (highly popular with teens) and exhibits spanning the full maritime history of the region. Visitors and residents alike turn to the port departure and arrival information announced at the center as freighters come and go under the bridge. The staff also does walking tours of the grounds during the summer season and offers tours for school groups and others throughout the year.
Over the years, a major fundraising and educational component for LSMMA has been the annual Gales of November program, gifted to the association by longtime member and Gales founder, diver Elmer Engman. He started the Gales as a small annual gathering for divers and it now encompasses all of Lake Superior’s maritime heritage as well as environmental history and future.
LSMMA has continued to have support and board members from the maritime industry. The Great Lakes Fleet has been a long-time supporter donating a cruise on its flagship freighter, the Edwin H. Gott, as a raffle fundraiser each year. Interlake Steamship Company, Fraser Shipyards, Midwest Energy, Allouez Marine Supply Company, the Duluth Seaway Port Authority and the Chamber of Marine Commerce and Lake Carriers’ Association all have given support. Grandma’s Restaurants, though not a maritime entity, donates an office space in its Canal Park Paulucci Building.
Building such partnership to reach goals has been a critical attribute of LSMMA. Thanks to Pat, another vital partnership blossomed probably beyond what was imagined in 2000, when it was decided to move the majority of the paper and photographic archives to the Jim Dan Hill Library on the University of Wisconsin-Superior campus. The hope was that the move would create a collection more accessible for research and viewing by the public.
Retired archivist Laura Jacobs had just joined the library staff about that time. “I was excited at the prospect of taking on the collections,” recalls Laura. “Our original conversation and proposal had identified “7 file cabinets” of material; but when I made my site visit I quickly realized that was just the ship files, not ‘all’ of the collection, which extended to an additional 7 file cabinets, 10 over-stuffed flat files, and hundreds of boxes, to say nothing of books. …
“Opening the collections to the public, where they had originally been primarily a reference collection for the museum itself, was in itself a huge step. I was told the museum staff only had a half-dozen requests for information per year, so I figured I could easily handle things. In late August 2000 we had just completed shifting the collection to the library. The next day, I was literally up to my armpits in boxes when the first researcher showed up unannounced … from Wales.”
Since then the archives have grown massively, benefiting from a number of maritime businesses and associations encouraged by the LSMMA transfer. “Very roughly speaking, the Lake Superior Maritime Collection of the LSMMA is over 710 feet of materials, plus over 1000 individually cataloged books in the ‘special collections’ area. The Fraser Shipyard collection is an additional 575 feet, including over 8000 aperture cards of their projects. The small and medium-sized related maritime collections, which include International Shipmasters Twin Ports Chapter, Harbor Club, Duluth-Superior Maritime (formerly Propeller) Club, Harold Andresen, Zenith Dredge and Lake Superior Fish Company collections as well as smaller manuscript collections by individuals total another 135 feet.”
DAVID SCHAUER
LSMMA’s newest project is preserving the South pier lighthouse.
Perhaps one of LSMMA’s biggest challenges has just begun. Earlier in 2025, the association finally earned stewardship of the red-roofed South Harbor Outer Breakwater Lighthouse on the Duluth Ship Canal. The multi-year process to gain stewardship means a future of intensive fundraising as LSMMA identifies and enumerates the cost of first preserving and then restoring the lighthouse. Eventually, LSMMA hopes to place exhibits explaining the history of the light within the building and opening it to tours by the public.
“We’re excited to acquire this iconic facility, refurbish it, and share it with the community,” LSMMA Board Member and Treasurer Al Finlayson said at a press conference about acquiring the light. Al has been the lead in advocating for its stewardship. “Preserving maritime artifacts– and in this case, one that’s still in use – is core to our LSMMA mission. We’re grateful for the support we’ve received to embark on this challenging but beneficial effort. Discussions are already underway with local experts who will help perform the repairs, and very soon, we’ll begin a fundraiser to help save this facility for present and future generations.”
“The exciting thing,” adds David, “is taking a musty dormant building and making it come alive again in an interpretive way.”
Preserving the lighthouse, adds David, may help to preserve LSMMA, too. “We have an aging membership and we think the lighthouse will help there. We’re trying to interest younger generation in the importance of preserving maritime history.”