Wisconsin boater stumbles on long-lost shipwreck in Lake Michigan

It was a normal evening in mid-July as Matt Olson sat at home on his computer, scanning satellite photos of Lake Michigan

It was a normal evening in mid-July as Matt Olson sat at home on his computer, scanning satellite photos of Lake Michigan.

Olson, who owns the tour company Door County Adventure Rafting, regularly used images taken from orbit to help identify interesting sights and new places to take his customers. As he virtually explored the shallow waters of Rowleys Bay, near the northern tip of the long, narrow peninsula that makes up Door County, Wisconsin, Olson spotted a bloblike discoloration in the water.

He didn’t know it at the time, but Olson had just stumbled on a long-lost shipwreck — the remains of a vessel that sunk in 1887. His serendipitous find set off an investigation by the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Door County is no stranger to shipwrecks. More than 250 known wrecks are scattered in the waters around the peninsula, owing to the area’s often challenging sailing conditions. These discoveries, however, help fill in the region’s maritime history, allowing people to better understand how the waterways of the Great Lakes were used over the years.