FOR RELEASE: October 24, 2007

 

For More Information:

Keith Meverden, Marine Archaeologist, Wisconsin Historical Society, (608) 221-5909
John Karl, Science Writer, Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, (608) 263-8621

Editors Note: High resolution photos for this story are available for downloading at www.seagrant.wisc.edu/communications/news_releases/2007/DanielLyonsPhotos.htm

Algoma Shipwreck Named to National Register of Historic Places

Algoma, Wis. (10/25/2007) –The five crew of the Daniel Lyons would surely be amazed to know that their wooden schooner, which they escaped from moments before it sank nine miles northeast of Algoma in 1878, has been listed this month on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Daniel Lyons was as unremarkable in her day as she is historically significant today. She was one of many vessels known as canallers, built to fit, just barely, though the locks of the Welland Canal, which bypass the Niagara Falls between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The Daniel Lyons and hundreds of similar vessels transported grain from ports on western Lake Michigan, collected from the newly settled farmlands of the Midwest, to eastern ports on Lakes Erie and Ontario. They returned to Lake Michigan loaded with coal that heated growing cities and powered new factories.

Including the Daniel Lyons, Wisconsin has 28 shipwrecks on the National Register, more than any other state, according to Keith Meverden, an underwater archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Meverden led a team of nautical archaeologists and volunteer divers in conducting a survey of the Daniel Lyons wreck site in 2005. The survey documented the current condition of the three-masted, 143-foot-long schooner and provided information essential to nominating the vessel to the National Register, Meverden said.

“Inclusion on the National Register gives the Daniel Lyons an additional level of protection beyond the laws of the state,” Meverden said. Federal and state law prohibits removing artifacts from shipwrecks on state bottomlands, Meverden said.

Early the morning of Oct. 18, 1878, the Daniel Lyons was struck and nearly sliced in two by another sailing vessel, the Kate Gillett. To keep the Lyons from flooding, the captain of the Gillett worked to keep the bow of his ship lodged deep in the Lyons hull, until the Lyons’ crew could scramble onto the Gillett. When the two vessels separated, the Daniel Lyons settled quickly at the stern, rolled on her side, and sank bow first.

The archaeological survey of the Daniel Lyons was funded by a grant from the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute.

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