What forgotten shipwrecks are beneath Lake Michigan?

Lake Michigan hides one of the world’s more eerieunderwater graveyards. With over a thousand shipwrecks, some just off Chicago’s shoreline, the lake draws divers, historians, and shipwreck tourists alike. These aren’t just lost boats; they’re sunken stories frozen in time.

In the 1800s, Chicago’s port turned the lake into a shipping superhighway. Steamers and schooners hauled goods and settlers across busy waters. But fast storms, poor navigation, and crowded routes made shipwrecks almost routine.

One of the more tragic and eerie tales is that of the Lady Elgin, a sidewheel steamer carrying over 400 passengers who were returning from a political rally in Milwaukee in 1860. Just after midnight, the schooner Augusta tore into her during a violent storm, splintering the ship off the shore of Winnetka. Only about 100 survived, clinging to wreckage as icy waves pulled the rest into darkness. Bodies washed ashore for weeks. The wreck still rests in fragments on the lakebed and is privately owned, making it off-limits to divers. Local folklore says lights flicker over the water on stormy nights.

Among the more bittersweet legends is that of the Rouse Simmons, “Captain Santa’s ship.” Every holiday season, Captain Herman Schuenemann sailed from Michigan to Chicago with a schooner full of Christmas trees. In 1912, he set off into a November storm and vanished. For years, pine branches washed ashore. When divers found the wreck in 1971, it sat upright 165 feet below the surface off Two Rivers, Wis., with trees still bundled in the hold.

Silver Spray, a steamship ferrying students to Jackson Park, ran aground on Morgan Shoal in 1914, just 200 yards off Lake Shore Drive. Salvagers set the wreckage on fire, hoping to expose salvageable metal, but the flames only made it more visible. Today, its rusted boiler and shaft still rise from the shallows near 57th Street Beach. On clear days, swimmers and kayakers pass its remains, and a local diver leads informal Sunday morning tours.

In May 2025, a fisherman near Manitowoc spotted something unexpected nine feet below the surface: the J.C. Ames, a 19th-century tugboat once used to haul lumber and railcars between Wisconsin and Chicago. Built in 1881 and powered by a massive steam engine, she was a workhorse of the Great Lakes. The wreck now lies exposed in shallow water, and preservation efforts are underway to keep it in place for public viewing.

The Rotarian was a passenger excursion steamer built in 1889. She ferried tourists and day‑trippers across Lake Michigan. In the 1920s, once she reached Chicago, her role shifted dramatically, and she became a floating dance hall blending politics, nightlife, and illicit booze before finally being scuttled. 

She sank in the 1930s about eight miles offshore, where she now rests in approximately 30 feet of water. Scattered but accessible, she remains a quirky stop for divers, canoers and kayakers.

Off the coast near Zion and Illinois Beach State Park lie the Moore Barge Wrecks, a scattered group of sunken schooners, WWI-era sub-chasers, and work barges. Some were scuttledintentionally as a breakwater in the 1930s, while others sank quietly to the bottom of the lake. Now, they’re a favorite training ground for dive clubs.

The Thomas Hume vanished in 1891 en route to Muskegon. Wild speculation led to stories of pirates, mutiny, and even UFOs. However, in 2006, divers discovered her intact in 145 feet of water off Chicago’s coast, with her hull and cargo remarkably well-preserved. Today, she’s a prized target for technical divers.

Lake Michigan’s shipwrecks, preserved by cold waters and protected by law, remain sacred stories etched into the lake’s soul.