'In the rooms of her ice-water mansion'

The Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot, and the Great Lakes.

The Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial at Whitefish Point, Michigan.

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, largest freighter on the lakes, sunk in Lake Superior 50 years ago today.¹ It was a national tragedy and one that bound the Great Lakes together in particular. The ship was funded by a company from Wisconsin², built in Michigan, laden with taconite from Minnesota, and staffed by a crew from Ohio. The troubadour who told its story was from Ontario.

Only the Canadian great Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away in 2023, could pen a poignant and haunting song about the event mere months afterward. It’s hard to imagine anything similar happening today, where a tragedy, an artist, and a song idea could quickly converge and something could emerge that is so beautiful.

Lightfoot’s music is best played on a rocky shoreline, on a windy, overcast day with only the sounds of the waves as the backdrop. It’s music best played on a transistor radio, the signal emanating from a station in Thunder Bay or Sault Ste. Marie. This is how many of us came to his music, sitting in a Great Lakes campground and tuning into oldies stations to wile away the time.

In addition to marking the loss of 29 sailors, today is a day to reflect on Lightfoot’s poetic songwriting skills. A favorite is “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” which is an epic that chronicles the construction of the transcontinental railroad from the perspective of the working-class “navvies.” Then of course there are classics like “Sundown,” “Rainy Day People,” and “Carefree Highway.” Some of his songs could jam, too, like “Baby Step Back,” the early 1980s track that has a funky groove to it.

November 10 is always a day with special meaning around here. This year it will be extra special, and one of many events will ring a bell 29 times outside the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. When I think of the Fitzgerald I think of crisp nights, November gales, and that beautiful and dangerous “ice water mansion” of Lake Superior. The loss of the Fitz is a reminder that nature truly is bigger than all of us.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

1. The Thrilla in Manila, the first episode of SNL, Carlton Fisk’s World Series home run, and the film release of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest all took place within weeks.

2. The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.