By Suzette Lopez

On April 4, 1894, the wooden propeller MINNEAPOLIS went down at 3:30 am off McGulpin’s Point in the Straits of Mackinac.  It was her first trip of the season.  She had left Chicago and was on her way to Buffalo laden with 48,000 bushels of grain when a mass of ice struck her side and knocked a hole in her. She had in tow the schooners RED WING and SAN DIEGO.   Her crew of fifteen were able to escape before she settled in twenty fathoms of water.  Her loss was estimated at $100,000.

The MINNEAPOLIS was built in 1873 at Marine City, Mich., by John J. Hill for Capt. Eber Ward of Detroit.  She measured 226 feet in length and 34 feet in beam and was intended for Ward’s Lake Superior Line, running from Buffalo to Duluth.  She was launched in July and by November was sold to the Engelmann Transportation Company.  At this time she had no cabins and was being run as a package freighter.  By March 1874, Englemann had added cabins and she was ready for summer passenger travel.

At the time of her demise, she was owned by A. A. Parker and Millen of Detroit and valued at $50,000.  Her cabins had been removed and she was a coarse freight carrier.

Her wreck lies just west of the Mackinac Bridge in about 125 feet of water.  She sits upright and is mostly intact.  Her passengers now are frequent schools of fish.

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Suzette Lopez is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.

Photos on top of pages:  MINNEAPOLIS at Duluth or Two Harbors

Other Photo:

Photo Credit:  Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society