Dossin Museum offers free events for Fitzgerald 50th anniversary remembrance

The Dossin Great Lakes Museum will hold its annual Lost Mariners Remembrance Ceremony on Nov. 8, 2026, at no cost to attendees. The event is part of a four-day schedule running from Nov. 7 to Nov. 10, marking the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald.

The museum announced that admission will also be free on Nov. 10, known as Lost Mariners Day. The programming includes a documentary screening that evening for a new film titled We Finished Their Journey. The documentary covers a 411-mile swim that began over the site of the wreck and ended in Detroit.

Observances begin on Nov. 7 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The Livonia Amateur Radio Club will operate Special Event Station W8F during this window. Volunteers at the station will share the history of the Fitzgerald and the details of its sinking with the public.

On the morning of Nov. 8, the museum hosts a Lost Mariners Brunch. The event features a presentation on Great Lakes history and a musical performance by Lee Murdock, a Great Lakes balladeer. Following the performance, attendees will eat a meal inspired by George Yaworski’s Ships of the Great Lakes Cookbook. The menu draws specifically from recipes found in the book’s chapter on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The central ceremony takes place from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 8. A memorial wreath will be transported from the Detroit River to the museum shore. Staff will place the wreath near the anchor of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald. The ceremony also includes an Honor Flotilla and the ringing of bells to honor the crew.

The Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Nov. 10, 1975, in Lake Superior. The ship was 13,632 tons and 729 feet long. It was carrying 26,116 tons of taconite pellets when it struck the bottom of the lake in 530 feet of water. All 29 crew members died in the incident. Their ages ranged from 21 to 63.

Captain Ernest McSorley sent a final radio transmission stating the crew was holding their own. The ship vanished from radar 17 miles from shore. The U.S. Coast Guard determined the vessel nosedived into a large wave and snapped in two as its cargo shifted forward. A bell tolls 29 times at the annual ceremonies to mark the lives lost.