At Split Rock Lighthouse, passed by the Edmund Fitzgerald 50 years ago, a beacon of light to honor the dead

TWO HARBORS, MINN. – The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a wicked storm 50 years ago on Lake Superior. On Monday, at Split Rock Lighthouse, where the doomed ship passed on its final trip, the sun shone bright on a chilly day and the water below merely rippled.

An annual event paying homage to the crew — including the names of the 29 lost men read aloud, a bell ringing after each, and then the lighting of the historic beacon — drew thousands to the North Shore.

“I’ve always wanted to come,” said Sue Lenarz, who drove up from St. Cloud. “I just think it’s important to honor the men who died on the ship.”

Former site manager Lee Radzak started the tradition of lighting the beacon at the already decommissioned lighthouse in 1985, on the 10th anniversary of the ship’s sinking. He recalled hearing Gordon Lightfoot’s song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” while driving in his car. He decided that when he got back to the lighthouse, where he lived, he would let the beacon glow for a few hours on the misty night.

It started as a quiet tribute, then neighbors caught on in following years. Now it’s a tradition that draws masses.

Hayes Scriven, who watches over the lighthouse today, said the celebration was important because relatives of those on board — and of others lost on the big lakes — still grieve.

“Beyond remembering the Fitzgerald and its crew, this ceremony also stands to commemorate all those who have perished on the Great Lakes,” he said, listing names of other shipwrecks. “We remember them all, every ship, every sailor, every story that the Great Lakes still hold beneath the surface.”

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber and Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert spoke at the ceremony, the latter joining the Lighthouse Quartet in a hymn.

Susan Munson of Starbuck, Minn., grew up in Taconite Harbor, Minn., a city up the North Shore that no longer exists. She remembers the way the waves from the 1975 storm created ice formations on the trees farther inland than she had ever seen.

She made a connection online with a relative of the ship’s cook, Robert C. Rafferty, who died aboard the ship. She wore a card with his name on it to the event — and passed out cards to people on her shuttle who liked the idea.

“I said I really wanted to honor him,” Munson said.

On the night the freighter went down, it had pulled out of a dock in Superior, Wis. Two men on board were from Minnesota and seven from Wisconsin, including two from Superior.

For this year’s commemoration, three members of the Rowland family made the trip to Split Rock from the Minneapolis area and found a spot to spread a picnic blanket and enjoy snacks that included Lake Superior whitefish from nearby Russ Kendall’s Smokehouse. They played Lightfoot’s song as Interstate 35 descended into Duluth. This year Amy Rowland taught her third-grade class in Bloomington to say in unison “We’re holding our own” — the words of the final radio transmission from the Edmund Fitzgerald — during a lesson about the ship.

Michael Rowland, Amy’s father, said he remembered how unbelievable it was that a ship like that could sink.

The trip to the lighthouse was a chance to be together on that picnic blanket, said Amy’s sister Annie Rowland.

“A moment to pause,” she said.