Swimmer takes part in Edmund Fitzgerald 50 year anniversary

Weir splashes her way to history in “Superior” event

 

IMLAY TWP. — For one Imlay Twp. woman, being a part of the historical Edmund Fitzgerald annual swim was special and she made sure she jumped in at etching her place in history.

Therese Weir was one of several people who took part in the 50th anniversary swim in Lake Superior commemorating the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975.

Four swimmers participated in each of the 17 swim stages for a total of 68 people taking part in the important mission, a mission that was filled with impactful experiences, creating memories to share for a lifetime.

The first stage of the swim started from above the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck, where swimmers left a memorial and lay roses on the water while tributes from family members are read to their loved ones resting below.

According to a website for the event, 2025 marked 50 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald, bound for Detroit with over 26,000 tons of iron ore, went down in that horrific 1975 Lake Superior storm, taking 29 souls with her.

Immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, this has become the world’s most famous shipwreck not named Titanic.

Weir is an open-water swimmer who loves to dip her toe in any large body of water and once she’s in, she doesn’t want to come out.

“It was an honor to do the swim, but I’ll be honest, I had a hard time getting out when it came time to change swimmers. I wanted to just keep going.”

Weir was part of a four-person team that swam 23.8 miles in Stage 17. They began offshore from Harbor Beach and finished their leg at Port Sanilac.

“We’d swim for a little ways and then switch off with another swimmer,” Weir stated. “We had quite a team with us. A support boat with medical staff, supplies and the other swimmers. Then, to finish off our leg of the event, all four of us swam the last little bit together. It was pretty special.”

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this historic maritime tragedy and to pay tribute to the 29 lost mariners, open water swimmers carried on their legacy with a 17-stage, 411-mile relay swim from where the Edmund Fitzgerald lies in Lake Superior to Detroit.

Participating swimmers symbolically completed the intended route and cargo delivery that the ship and crew were tragically unable to complete on that fateful night 50 years ago, by passing between them iron ore pellets from the same dock in Superior, Wisconsin, where the “Big Fitz” took on her last load.

Swimmers helped raise funds for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) to preserve the Whitefish Point Light Station, a most important beacon for all vessels entering or leaving Lake Superior since 1849, and the oldest operating lighthouse on the lake.

“It was a pretty expensive registration fee, just to be able to take part,” Weir recalled. “Plus, I was able to raise my $2,500 in fundraising. It was such an honor to be able to do this swim.”

In a most unfortunate irony, the lighthouse went dark due to a power outage and was no help to the Edmund Fitzgerald the night she lost her radar and ultimately lost her battle to the raging storm.

Weir said among the highlights, aside from her love of an open body of water to swim in, was a keepsake she – and the other 67 swimmers – received at the end of the swim in Detroit.

“There’s a museum there open to the public where they can see a lot of the history,” Weir shared. “All of the swimmers who took part received an actual piece of the iron ore that was actually on board the Edmund Fitzgerald at the time she sank. THAT is pretty special and something I will always cherish.”

The Edmund Fitzgerald is a gravesite, so starting the swim there required obtaining a special permit, as even boats are usually forbidden to pass over the wreck. This was sure to be an honor indeed for the first four swimmers who took part in the respectful and moving tribute.

Following the poignant ceremony, it is a 17-mile relay swim to the lighthouse and Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. Captain Ernest McSorley was desperately trying to cover these same 17 miles to reach the shelter of Whitefish Bay when the ship went down.