Shipwreck from 1871 Peshtigo fire discovered in Lake Michigan
When Tim Wollak and his 6-year-old daughter, Henley, went fishing in Lake Michigan, they stumbled upon something unexpected. What they thought was an octopus turned out to be the never-before-seen wreck of a ship that sunk in 1871 during the Peshtigo fire.
The pair, who live in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, were out fishing near Green Island when they made the discovery. Wollak, surprised that he hadn’t seen it before, began researching to identify the ship. He eventually got in touch with the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program, and their investigation led to the discovery of a wooden three-masted sailing ship about 8 to 10 feet deep in the water.
The location and available data match that of the barkentine George L. Newman, which was built in Ohio in 1855 and wrecked on October 8, 1871, while sailing through heavy smoke from the Great Peshtigo Fire – the deadliest forest fire in US history. The crew was rescued by a lighthouse keeper, salvaging what they could before the vessel was abandoned and largely forgotten until the Wollaks spotted it.
The Wisconsin Historical Society plans to survey the wreck further in the spring and assess it for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This discovery comes just a few months after the long-lost schooner Trinidad, built in 1867 and wrecked in 1881, was also spotted in Lake Michigan.
As for the Wollaks, Tim expressed uncertainty about how their future fishing trips will compare to their exciting discovery. “I told her I’m pretty sure there’s no one else in her school that has ever found a shipwreck that nobody had recorded before….I guess we’ll just have to fish more and see if we can find more shipwrecks,” he said.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Conservation Warden Mike Neal used a remote-operated vehicle to investigate the shipwreck and capture footage of the rare find. The historical significance and the discovery’s proximity to the Peshtigo fire make this shipwreck particularly notable.