Friends group launches 'Year of the Fitz'

SUPERIOR — The Year of the Fitz has begun.

Members of the Friends of the Fitz group gathered Saturday, Jan. 11 at Superior Public Library to officially kick off fundraising efforts for a historic marker in Superior honoring the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and its crew of 29.

“I think it’s awesome. It ties everything together," said Hayes Scriven, site manager for Split Rock Lighthouse in Minnesota. "It shows big community involvement and remembrance for the Fitz. Ties the ends of the lakes together.”

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Split Rock lights its beacon every Nov. 10 to honor the sunken freighter and its crew. The tradition began in 1985 when the site manager at the time, inspired by Gordon Lightfoot’s song about the wreck, turned on the beacon for the 10th anniversary.

“The next year, people just showed up and he lit the beacon again for them,” Scriven said. “So what began as a small act of remembrance has now grown into an annual event which sees over 1,700 guests joining us last year to honor the 29 men who lost their lives.”

The marker planned in Superior, like the beacon lighting, is important because it ensures the men are never forgotten, he said.

The historical marker will be placed on Barker’s Island within sight of the ore docks where the Fitzgerald took on her last load. The cost for the marker is around $7,000, according to Friends of the Fitz member Teddie Meronek. If any additional funding is raised, it would be used for landscaping and possibly a second marker that lists the names of those lost.

The Douglas County Historical Society is serving as the fiscal sponsor. Donations can be made on the society's website, in person at 1101 John Ave. during operating hours, mailed to that address, or via Venmo and PayPal.

For 90 days following the kickoff, all donations will be matched by Terry Lundberg, president of the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center’s board of directors.

“We’re really, really grateful for his commitment to see this historical marker happen,” said City Councilor Jenny Van Sickle, a member of the Friends of the Fitz.

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Superior Mayor Jim Paine read a proclamation naming 2025 the Year of the Fitz in Superior. Friends members are hoping community members will hold events remembering the lost crew of the Fitzgerald throughout the year. Paine also suggested that people consider donating $29 toward the marker.

“The responsibility isn’t to recognize Superior or our role in it. It is our responsibility in Superior to recognize these men that died on this ship, as well as all of the men and women that are working in the maritime industry," Paine said. "History isn’t really about these things — these ships or these places. It really doesn’t mean anything without the people. That’s the story that we’re really telling.”

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Erika Smith came to the kickoff event with her children, Hogan, 4, and Marquette, 6.

“Their dad and my husband sails on the Great Lakes. I sailed on the Great Lakes before we were married,” Smith said.

Her husband, Jake, is a wheelsman for the Paul R. Tregurtha. Smith served as a relief cook on numerous Great Lakes vessels.

She recalled the first storm she ever went out in. Lying in her bed, her feet would hit the dresser, then her head would hit the bulkhead as the ship heaved.

She recalled another time when she and her husband were working on a vessel together and they were walking down the loading tunnel to see each other.

“I stood at the stern end of the tunnel and you could see the lights at the end of the tunnel, and then you couldn’t,” because it was flexing so much in the storm, she said. “It was scary. It was nerve-wracking, but what else can we do?"

Every Nov. 10, Smith plays Gordon Lightfoot’s song and remembers the crew of the Fitzgerald. Hogan heard and began to listen to the song about 20 times a day. He watches a documentary on the lost laker once a week.

“So we just came today to help out and see what we could do,” Smith said.

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Lifelong Superior resident Pete Quist spoke up at the meeting.

“I was alive when the Fitz sunk and that New Year’s Day in '76 there was a little get-together in Iron River at an establishment," he said. "A friend of ours was from Iron River and he started to point out, ‘There’s a widow, there’s a widow, there’s a widow,’ So it’s kind of a somber moment.”

Beth Christman of Superior was 10 when the Fitzgerald sank.

“We came today because this is a part of our history, but it’s also a part of what I’d like to be my future," she said. "I would like to be a part of the Friends of the Fitz and help do anything ... to make sure that this is honored, not just here in this small mill town, but that the rest of the world understands the value of the power of a community and all that we can do together to celebrate each other."

For Ellie Green of Superior, the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald is both a memory and a challenge.

“I was living in Duluth at the time and it was devastating even to me,” Green said.

Her granddaughter, Mackenzie Williams, wrote a children’s book about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Williams worked at The Bookstore at Fitgers and people kept asking for children’s books on the subject.

Williams, a University of Wisconsin-Superior graduate who had just been accepted to graduate school for creative writing, was killed in a motorcycle crash June 9. Ellie Green and Mackenzie’s mother, Jennifer Green, hope to get the book published in time for the 50th anniversary of the sinking.

“I’m just so proud of my 23-year-old granddaughter that had a heart for this ship and, you know, she was not even thought of when back in 1975,” Green said.

Megan Muthupandiyan, an assistant professor of writing at UWS, said Williams was a beloved student full of passion and curiosity.

“She just was an amazing human being,” Muthupandiyan said. “She had so many gifts.”

The book, “Ellie’s Pursuit of the Mighty Fitz,” follows a young girl’s trip to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Michigan with her grandmother.

“Ultimately it becomes a study also in the practice of grief,” Muthupandiyan said. “It was very clear that all of these individuals who she encounters, from her grandmother on, are ultimately providing context for how do you manage grief.”

Christman, a retired educator, asked what kind of history curriculum is available to provide background on the Edmund Fitzgerald. She was excited to talk with Mackenzie’s family.

“The book and the elementary schools, that would be awesome,” she said. “I think that that time in a kids’ life is when they make those kinds of love and connections to their community.”

Jennifer Green said they are working with interns at the University of Wisconsin-Superior to prepare the book for publishing. The family is seeking an illustrator for the book, which is geared for ages 8-12, as well as funding to publish it.

Donations can be made at National Bank of Commerce and Superior Choice Credit Union and via PayPal and Venmo. Email AuthorMckenzieLeeWilliams@gmail.com for more information.

Dan Williamson / Duluth Media Group