March 2, 2005
Mixer tells harrowing storm stories
Television journalist recounts Great Lakes shipwrecks as part of lecture series
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Armistice Day, 1940. A storm originating in Seattle hit Lake Michigan seemingly out of nowhere, blasting Lake Michigan with winds exceeding 125 miles per hour and waves as high as 40 feet.
Three Great Lakes freighters sank in that storm. A dozen others were beached and 60 sailors died during the fury. Three fishermen from Pentwater rescued 17 men from a boat, after this freighter crew had endured 36 hours on the domed vessel as it was battered against rocks by winds.
Other monster storms included ones in 1905, 1913 and 1916. In 1913, 30 hours of raging winds on Lake Huron sank a dozen ships and pushed 20 to shore. Other storms in 1958 and 1966 sunk a freighter each. The most famous Great Lakes storm occurred in 1975 and sent the Edmund Fitzgerald to the bottom of Lake Superior with all 29 crew aboard.
Wednesday evening, veteran television journalist Ric Mixter of Saginaw outlined the death and destruction wrought by the Great Lakes' worst storms for an audience of 50 people. He brought the storms and sailors to life with firsthand narratives of diving expeditions, eyewitness accounts from the shore, newspaper records, family histories and official reports.
"There are no books on this history, usually it's hours and hours in front of the microfiche," he noted of his extensive research.
An enthusiastic and fascinating speaker, Mixter shared his admiration for the brave sailors who have battled the lakes during the worst of times.
"There's just amazing stories of survival and rescue, of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations," said Mixter, a senior producer at Airworthy Productions.
"One man survived 37 hours in the water," he added. "For many of these survivors it is difficult for them to talk about it, their eyes well up and I get to be the ghoul who brings it up to the, but it seems to purge them."
The Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum in Northport sponsored the lecture, the first in a series of three. Last year the Lighthouse Museum hosted a series of six weekly lectures beginning in March; this year the organization changed the format to one lecture a month over there months.
"It's intended to promote our lighthouse but to also raise funds for our educational programs," said Stefanie Staley, executive director of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum in Northport. "We have school kids who come every year for tours of the facility and activities and different educational programs that we offer."
Mixter began researching and then creating stories and documentaries about shipwrecks - he has dove to many including the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1994 - nearly 15 years ago.
While working as a television reporter in Saginaw, Mixter covered the explosion of the tanker Jupiter in 1990. The event sparked an interest in shipwrecks that eventually culminated with his leaving his network job to form his own company. He wanted to tell the stories in greater length than a 90-second television news format allowed.
Calling it a "labor of love," Mixter has since created more than two dozen documentaries for PBS on Great Lakes shipping, shipwrecks and storms.
"In the Great Lakes, there are schooners that are 120-130 years old that are completely preserved," said Mixter, noting that zebra mussels have coated wrecks. "A lot of people don't know that there's a 600-foot vessel sitting within in a mile of the Mackinac Bridge."
On March 16, the Winter Lecture Series continues with "Dive into the Past: Shipwrecks of the Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary" by Jeff Gray. This talk will be held in Room 211 of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy and costs $10 per person. The final lecture will be on April 20 will be held in Northport, where Kathy Firestone and Stefanie Staley will discuss South Fox Island and its Light Station. For more information on these lectures or to make a reservation (which is encouraged), call 231-386-7195.