EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference staff at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.

30 years ago

MACKINAC — What began as a routine research expedition may have turned into an rare historical find for University of Michigan researchers. The 80-foot research vessel Laurantain was cruising the Straits of Mackinac when its sonar showed a far different picture than Lake Huron sediment. “Suddenly, we started looking at images that looked like a ship,” said Norman Andresen, a research associate with the university Center for Great Lakes and Aquatic Sciences. The sonar printed an image indicating the ship’s three masts were still upright and at least partly rigged. Andresen though the ship had been discovered before since it was near a lighted reef buoy tended by the U.S. Coast Guard. But research by state historians has shown the July 25 discovery was indeed the first time the sunken ship had been seen, said center director Theodore Moore Jr. The ship is between 150 and 200 feet long, with eight hatches and three masts. Michigan Historical Museum exhibit coordinator Scott Peters thinks it may be the barge-schooner Newell Eddy, which was lost somewhere off Bois Blanc Island in April 1893. But Peters said the wreckage could belong to any of six ships of similar dimensions lost in the area. A study of the wreck could yield important clues about shipboard life in the late 19th century, he said. Researchers won’t reveal the ship’s location because they don’t want it to be plundered by sport divers, Moore said.

60 years ago

NEGAUNEE — With employment of a librarian and speech correctionist, the Negaunee public schools’ faculty is complete for the 1962-63 school year. Approval was given by the board of education at its monthly meeting this week to issuing of contracts to Mrs. Barbara Rector and Mrs. Jean Cutlip. Mrs. Rector, who has had several courses in library work, although it is not her major field, is being transferred from the homemaking department to the post of librarian. Mrs. Cutlip, a former member of the local faculty, will handle the speech correction program on a part-time basis.