After 150 years, missing Lake Michigan shipwreck, Lac La Belle found

For more than 150 years, the passenger steamer Lac La Belle had been missing in the depths of Lake Michigan. Now, one of the most sought-after missing ships has been found.

According to a Feb. 13 news release from Shipwreck World, a group that works to locate shipwrecks around the globe, the passenger steamer Lac La Belle was found by Illinois shipwreck hunter and scuba diver Paul Ehorn, among others.

Many have searched for the vessel for years before it was found upright and intact by Ehorn and his partner, Bruce Bittner.

Ehorn’s Lac La Belle discovery took place in October 2022, he told the Associated Press in an interview.

The announcement, however, was delayed because his other commitments kept his dive team from going back down to the wreck until last summer.

After two hours in their second pass, a large object crawled across the screen of Ehorn’s Klein side-scan sonar. They immediately turned around and viewed it at a higher resolution, showing the arches of the Lac La Belle.

“It was a moment of real jubilation,” Ehorn said in the news release.  “We knew we had done it.”

The wreck’s distance from shore, along with poor weather, prevented Ehorn from examining the wreck for almost two years.

Eventually, Ehorn, who is now 80, recruited divers John Janzen and John Scoles to dive and film the deep wreck, according to the news release.

The exact location of the wreck has not been revealed.

“Although her superstructure is blown off, you can see all of her wooden framing and some of her cargo is visible,” said Ehorn.

The Lac La Belle, built in 1864 in Ohio, spent its early years running from Cleveland to Lake Superior.

After a collision sank her in the St. Clair River in 1866, she was raised in 1869, reconditioned and purchased by Milwaukee’s Englemann Transportation Co.

On Oct. 13, 1872, with 53 passengers and crew as well as a cargo of 19,000 bushels of barley, 1,200 barrels of flour, 50 barrels of pork and 25 barrels of whiskey aboard, she began leaking uncontrollably.

As the captain tried to turn the vessel back to Milwaukee, the weather worsened, and she started to sink.

The sinking left eight people dead.

Ehorn plans to produce a 3D photo model of the wreck on March 7 at the 2026 Ghost Ships Festival in Manitowoc.

Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: After 150 years, missing Lake Michigan shipwreck, Lac La Belle found

Reporting by Jalen Williams, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press

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