LONG-LOST FOUND

Mystery Clue Leads to Discovery of Shipwreck After 150 Years

The vessel’s hull and oak interiors remain largely intact.

A Lake Michigan mystery that endured for more than a century has finally been solved. Explorers with Shipwreck World confirmed that the wreck of the 19th-century steamer Lac La Belle was located in October 2022, resting roughly 20 miles off the Wisconsin shoreline between Racine and Kenosha. The find capped a pursuit that began in 1965 for Illinois shipwreck hunter Paul Ehorn, now 80. The breakthrough came when author and fellow wreck researcher Ross Richardson shared a carefully guarded tip: a commercial fisherman had once pulled up an artifact distinctive to 1800s steamships from a particular stretch of lake. Ehorn recalibrated his search area and, using side-scan sonar, identified the wreck within two hours. Both men have declined to reveal more, noting the fiercely competitive world of shipwreck hunting. Built in 1864, the 217-foot steamer sank during a violent gale on Oct. 13, 1872. Eight people died when a lifeboat capsized. Today, though coated in quagga mussels and missing its upper cabins, the vessel’s hull and oak interiors remain largely intact.