স্প্লিট রক ফিটজেরাল্ডকে সম্মান জানাতে তার বীকন আলো করে
This is a somber occasion, a tradition of remembrance. Every November, on the anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinking, crowds gather at Split Rock Lighthouse on the North Shore. The names of each of the 29 crew members lost in the wreck are read aloud. A bell tolls in their memory. The bell was rung a 30th time to honor the thousands of others who have perished in Great Lakes shipwrecks over the decades. Then the beacon is lit, shining across the frigid expanse of Lake Superior. Robert Ditto, 26, left, and Scott Johnson, 25, interpreters with the Minnesota Historical Society, participate in the bell-ringing for the 29 crew members at the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald at Split Rock Lighthouse near Silver Bay on Monday. Erica Dicano for MPR News Monday’s event — the lighthouse’s 40th anniversary lighting and the 50th anniversary of the sinking — drew a crowd of more than 2,000 people. Lee Radzak, former lighthouse site director, came up with the idea for the event in 1985, on the 10th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck. At the time, remembering the tragedy was a gesture by one person. “I had the keys to this lighthouse, and this lighthouse is intimately connected to the Fitzgerald story,” he recalls thinking. The ship passed the lighthouse on Nov. 9, 1975, leaving Superior, Wisconsin, headed for Detroit with a 26,000-ton cargo of iron ore. The next day, Nov. 10, the ship sank in a violent storm on eastern Lake Superior. “It’s a small thing to do, but I thought I could light the light,” Radzak recalled of his first Nov. 10 remembrance at Split Rock. “I went up and cranked up the weight the old-fashioned way, the way it’s still done. And I lit the light for a couple of hours. It was just really good to be there.”
Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Service Full screen slideshow 10.css-1le8xi7-Slide-Slide- Previous Slide10 > img{max-height:0px;width:auto;}Waves crash on the shore of Lake Superior Monday evening at Split Rock Lighthouse. 10.css-1le8xi7-Slide-Slide > img{max-height:0px;width:auto;}Erica Dicano for MPR News1 of At Split Rock Lighthouse northeast of Two Harbors on Minnesota’s North Shore, Monday, people gathered to remember the loss of the Fitzgerald and its crew. 10.css-1le8xi7-Slide-Slide > img{max-height:0px;width:auto;}Ed Maki, 74, an interpreter with the Minnesota Historical Society, demonstrates the workings of the Split Rock Lighthouse to visitors, Monday. Erica Dicano for MPR News Next Slide That first year, he was alone, up at the lighthouse perched on a bluff overlooking Lake Superior. But some people saw the light and asked him to do it again the next year. “Over the years, it just grew organically,” Radzak said. “We felt like we needed to keep doing it. It was the right thing to do.” This year’s landmark event drew people from far and wide. It was sold out weeks in advance, showing how connected area residents feel to the vast lake — beautiful and forbidding — and the ships that travel its waters. They filled a courtyard in front of the lighthouse and lined the shore below the rocky bluff to watch the lighthouse light up in the distance. Crowds gather at Split Rock Lighthouse during an event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Monday. Erica Dicano for MPR News Susan Munson was there with her husband from Starbuck, Minn. and she grew up not far from Split Rock. Her father worked further up the North Shore for Erie Mining Company, loading ships with massive cargos of iron ore destined for the steel mills of the lower Great Lakes. She was 11 years old when the Fitzgerald sank. “And I remember the storm because I was probably 30 miles north of here, and I came from a family who worked for a mining company. We watched the ore boats every day. It hit very close to home for me,” she said. Munson and her husband wore cards around their necks “In Memory Of Robert Rafferty.” He was a cook and died on the Fitz. They connected with his cousin on a Great Lakes Facebook page. “We should all remember the people,” Munson said. “The ship is the centerpiece of things, but we really have to remember the people.” Visitors descend the stairs inside the Split Rock Lighthouse on Monday. Erica Dicano for MPR NewsMark Nagel of St. Cloud planned to attend the event months in advance. He remembers learning about the tragedy in ninth grade. “And it just seemed like something that was impossible,” Nagel said. “The story of the Fitzgerald is haunting. And it feels good to come here and honor those 29 lives.” Their memories live on at the annual Split Rock gala, and others like it around the Great Lakes — both with people who remember the tragedy from their childhoods, and a new generation invested in the wreck’s history. “I’ve always been a geek, especially about ships and shipwrecks,” said Luke Schmig, 19, of Glencoe, Minn., who convinced his family to join him at the memorial. “I’m excited to be here,” Schmig said. “It’s cold, but I don’t care.”
প্রকাশিত: 2025-11-11 18:28:00
উৎস: www.mprnews.org
