Split Rock Lighthouse Honors 50th Anniversary of Edmund Fitzgerald Tragedy

(Learfield News/Duluth, MN) – Today (Monday) at 4 p.m., Split Rock Lighthouse will host its annual Beacon Memorial Lighting Ceremony, marking 50 years since the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior.

The solemn event pays tribute to the 29 crew members who lost their lives on November 10th, 1975.

Site manager Hayes Scriven says the ceremony begins with the singing of the Navy Hymn, followed by a poignant tradition known as the Mustering of the Last Watch. “Then we go into the actual mustering of the last watch – where we read aloud the crew members’ names and then ring a bell,” Scriven explains. “We do that 29 times for the crew members, and then we’ve added one final bell for all the sailors that have been lost on the Great Lakes. And then we light the beacon here at the lighthouse, and that’ll go for about two hours.”

This year’s program also features remarks from Lee Radzak, former site manager at Split Rock, who began the memorial tradition 40 years ago.

Visitors can tour the lighthouse and view a film about the Edmund Fitzgerald, offering a deeper look into one of the Great Lakes’ most haunting maritime disasters.

A livestream will be available for today’s ceremony on the Minnesota Historical Society’s Split Rock Lighthouse webpage (click here).