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Photo courtesy Bob Olson / GLSPS
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Corey Daniel, Helen Wright and Wanda Sprague prepare the Madeira anchor for its display at Split Rock Lighthouse. A Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation grant aided the project.
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Photo courtesy Bob Olson / GLSPS
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Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society members work above and below water. Randy Beebe, in the red shirt, aids Jim Christianson (gray shirt) as Dan Lewandowski prepares to dive on the wrecked Mayflower off Lester River. Bob Nelson waits at right. They are documenting the wreck to nominate it to the National Register of Historic Places.
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Photo courtesy Bob Olson / GLSPS
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Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society members work above and below water. Randy Beebe, cleaning the Meteor in Superior.
by Konnie LeMay
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society
For its unique dedication to preserving our underwater heritage, for encouraging wise visitation of shipwrecks and for creating a program to return artifacts to places for public appreciation, Lake Superior Magazine is proud to give this year’s Achievement Award to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society.
Since 1994, the Achievement Award is given annually to a group or individual who significantly contributes to the well-being of Lake Superior and its communities.
The GLSPS, with a modest sized membership, consistently shows determination and rare ability to fulfill its mission of protecting this special part of our maritime heritage.
We salute and support your efforts and are pleased to honor you with this special award.
In striving for goals, a can-do attitude becomes a valuable strength. More valuable still is a how-to ability that transforms goals into realities.
Both attitude and ability sum up the members and the actions of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society. In fact, even before it became an official organization in 1996, its soon-to-be members demonstrated skills that have made this volunteer group a desirable partner in dozens of historic preservation projects.
In 1994, the divers who ultimately founded the GLSPS took on the task of preserving the remains of Samuel P. Ely, a three-masted wooden schooner that broke up against the west breakwater at Two Harbors, Minnesota, in a 1896 blow. Partially covered by the breakwater and damaged by later work, the wreck was in danger of flattening out against the lake bottom. The divers eventually attached cables to the Ely through winter ice to pull it upright. That and subsequent attempts to keep the Ely stable led to other similar projects, such as with the America wreck near Isle Royale.
“We’re the first organization that’s ever attempted to rebuild and stabilize shipwrecks underwater,” says Ken Merryman, a GLSPS founder. “I know of no other that’s done that in the world.”
Over time, the group developed a number of programs and tackles as many as 14 projects each year - from preserving fragile underwater ship remains to nominating wrecks for the National Register of Historic Places to creating on-land public displays. This number of projects seems incredible given that the membership fluctuates from 130 to 200. That membership - which now includes divers, maritime historians, boatnerds and others - harbors skills from engineering to grant writing. GLSPS was the first nonprofit to nominate an underwater wreck for inclusion on the National Register when in 2005 it nominated Benjamin Noble, a long-lost wreck on Minnesota’s North Shore found just a few years ago … by GLSPS members.
The group created the P.I.B. - Put It Back - program to return artifacts taken from wrecks so that other divers can see them on the vessels underwater. Now GLSPS sometimes places recovered artifacts into museums, parks or other public places for viewing even by those of us who keep our heads above water. P.I.B. reminds divers not to remove items from Great Lakes wrecks in the first place (which is now the law).
“We educate the public, educate other divers who may not have that philosophy,” says Steve Daniel, a former GLSPS president. They may consider taking things to keep.
Saltwater-only divers may not understand that artifacts should - and can - be left in fresh water, where they last much longer than in salt water.
The offices of Lake Superior Magazine benefitted from P.I.B. when a stair rail from the wrecked America was reunited here with its spiral staircase. This summer, GLSPS acquired then placed at Split Rock Lighthouse Historic Site the anchor from the Madeira, one of the 1905 wrecks that prompted creation of that light. It was no small task to move the massive anchor and prepare the site. The group worked with the owners of the anchor to have it donated to GLSPS, which could create this outdoor display, and with an equipment operator to move it.
The anchor project is typical of this group. Lee Radzak, manager of the Split Rock site, wanted the display there, but had no budget for it.
“I told them, ‘I don’t have any funds for getting heavy equipment to move this,’” he says. “They really did it themselves. … Some of their guys are real hands-on. They knew how to get the stuff done.”
Susan Anderson, executive director of Superior Public Museums, couldn’t agree more. GLSPS helped to grow the spring maintenance of the SS Meteor, the last above-water example of a whaleback vessel. Many volunteers come from the Twin Cities or farther at their own expense and stay several days to help.
“They are so wonderful … and you can quote me on that!” Susan says. “They are so giving of their time and they have so many talents. That group is so diverse … and when they show up to work on the ship each spring, they just amaze me with what they accomplish.”
The work undertaken by GLSPS is often hard and time-consuming, but it’s worth it, members feel.
“If it was drudgery, I wouldn’t do it,” says Phil Kerber, GLSPS president and also chairman of the annual SS Meteor Preservation Project. “Everything is so satisfying when it’s done.”
Past Lake Superior Magazine Achievement Award Winners
2009 The Great Waters Initiative
2008 Kurt Soderberg, Retired Executive Director, WLSSD
2007 The Earth Keepers Initiative
2006 Ray Clevenger and creation of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
2005 Gaylord Nelson
2004 Nature Conservancy
2003 Davis Helberg, Retired Executive Director, Duluth Seaway Port Authority
2002 Elmer Engman, Diver, Founder of “Gales of November”
2001 Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
2000 Crisp Point Light Historical Society
1999 C. Patrick Labadie, Maritime Historian
1998 John and Ann Mahan, Authors/Publishers
1997 North of Superior Marina Marketing Association
1996 Cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan & Ontario
1995 Lake Superior Binational Forum
1994 Craig Blacklock, photographer