Mysteries of the Lake Michigan Triangle

5/11/2024

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
The Great Lakes has served as passage to the Atlantic Ocean for hundreds of years. There is an area between Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Ludington, Michigan and south to Benton Harbor that has its history of mysterious disappearances comparable to the Bermuda Triangle.

The Thomas Hume built in 1870 disappeared while sailing on Lake Michigan in 1891

The first known ship to go missing on Lake Michigan was Le Griffon which disappeared in 1679 while on her maiden voyage. It's estimated 1,500 ships have wrecked in Lake Michigan, but only 300 have been found.

There is a triangle that has accounted for numerous mysterious events, beginning in 1891, when a three-masted schooner named the Thomas Hume set off across Lake Michigan from Chicago headed for Muskegon. It was mid-May when she disappeared with a cargo of lumber and a crew of seven. She rode in consort with one of the company’s other schooners, the Rouse Simmons, which would itself be lost in a terrible storm on Lake Michigan in 1912.

Soon after she sailed a sudden squall came up, and other ships, including the Rouse Simmons came back into port, but not the Thomas Hume.

Since no debris was found from the ship, there were many theories as to what her real fate was. Speculation ranged from the crew stealing the ship or that it was struck by a freighter and sunk. The owners offered a $300 reward for information on the ship, but no one ever came forward to claim the money

Three months after the ship was lost a bottle was picked up on the beach near Benton Harbor, Michigan that read:

We, the undersigned, are passengers on the Thomas Hume. The schooner's hold is rapidly filling with water and we have no hope of escape. We are on the St. Joseph course and have been drifting for hours. We have friends in McCook, Nebraska and Elkhart, Indiana. Please notify them of our fate.
Frank Maynard
Wilbur Grove

The wreck of the the Thomas Hume was discovered in 2006 (Source - MSRA)

The truth of what happened to the Thomas Hume came to light in 2006 when Taras Lyssenko with A&T Recovery came across the wreck. The find was coincidental since the search was for old Navy planes from WWII in the lake's southern end.

The Thomas Hume was mostly intact due to the frigid waters, but it was found far out in the lake at 145 feet of depth. Her hull was whole but all three masts were broken.

The Rosa Belle (Source - Bowling Green State Univ)

The Rosa Belle Ship Mystery
The ship was built in 1863, and was one of the few schooners still sailing on the lakes in the early 20th century. She left in mid-October, 1921 bound for High Island, and was due to return with a cargo of lumber, cedar and potatoes. It was planned this would be the last trip for the season.

The schooner was owned by the House of David, who on October 29, 1917, four years to the date, had lost another steamer, the Rising Sun that had also left High Island. Like the Rosa Belle she was on her last trip, and she went down off Pyramid Point when she encountered a storm. Six passengers and a crew of 20 were able to get ashore.

Many feared the Rosa Belle was lost after a very severe storm swept through Lake Michigan. She was found 42 miles east of Milwaukee floating upside down in the middle of the lake on October 30. There was no trace of any of the crew. Some wondered if she had been hit by an ore carrier since she was traversing the lane most vessels took on the lake, even though no ships reported hitting her. The stern was broken off and all the rigging was floating around her. The life boat was gone. She was captained by Erhart Gleise, and had picked up the crew on High Island. The exact number was not known, however the number would be changed to eleven, and over twenty-five according to the House of David.

This was not the first time the Rosa Belle had encountered disaster. In 1875 she was caught in a gale. Her cargo was a total loss and the cook was washed overboard and drowned. The captain and five men were rescued. In 1884, the boiler exploded instantly killing Captain Charles Applegate, his son and John P. Hayne the engineer. It wrecked the boat.

Members of House of David c.1920

The owners of the ship lived on High Island where they ran a timber-cutting and truck-farm operation from 1912 to 1927. The House of David was a religious group founded in Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1903 by Benjamin and Mary Purcell both Adventist.

They were millenarians, which was a movement that believed there would be a radical change in society, after a major cataclysm or transformative event. The members were required to take a vow of celibacy before being admitted, as well as agreeing not to cut their hair and living communally. The High Island farm grew potatoes and other root crops, highly valued by the members who were vegetarians.

The group would go on to leave the island in 1927 after their sect leader Benjamin Purnell was involved in a sex scandal. At its high point 12o to 150 persons lived on the island. They ran an amusement park in Benton Harbor. Present day the 3,500 acre island is unoccupied.

Months after the loss of the Rosa Belle, parts of her cargo including life preservers washed onshore, however none of her crew or passengers were ever found.

Rosabelle boiler explodes c.1884 (Source - Crawford Avalanche)

Captain Donner's cabin from which he mysteriously disappeared c.1937

Disappearance of Captain Doner
On April 28, 1937 Captain George R. Doner spent the day guiding the O.S. McFarland, a 130-ton coaler around ice floes in Lake Michigan as she traveled between Sheboygan and Port Washington.

According to the crew, the lake was calm but around 10:30 p.m. a blood red moon came over the horizon. They would later recall that between the rising of the moon and 1:30 a.m. Captain Doner disappeared from his cabin. He was last seen at 10:20 p.m. in his cabin.

Upon arriving at Port Washington harbor the captain was signaled to bring in the boat between the piers so she could be tied to the docks. Crew members knocked on his cabin door, but it remained closed. They searched the galley, and then the rest of the ship but he could not be found.

Charles Reicher the first mate then took command and brought the steamer in.

The captain's cabin was next to the pilothouse and the crew had a clear view of the door, and could not remember him leaving. Fearing Captain Doner had suffered some type of health problem, the door was broken in. He was not there. To add to the mystery, Captain Donner was too large to fit through the two portholes in his room, and the door was locked from the inside.

The disappearance of Capt. Doner c.1937

The sheriff was called and told of the mystery of the captain's disappearance. The crew said the captain had not slept for four days since the ship left Erie. They dismissed the suicide theory, claiming he was not that kind of man.

The ship's officers did tell the sheriff the captain was worried because the vessel's fore and aft compasses were not functioning right. This was the captain's first voyage in two years.

The ship's steward said the captain came to him that last night, and said he didn't feel well and asked him to stay in the cabin with him through the night. The steward though remained in his own quarters.

Captain Doner had been sailing the Great Lakes for 25 years, and came from a seafaring family. He was a first cousin of the late Captain James Doner, former secretary and manager of the Reiss Steamship company who passed away in 1936.

The lake shore was searched in case his body washed up, but nothing was found.

Doner's disappearance remains unsolved until this day.

The crew of Flight 2501

The Disappearance of Northwest Flight 2501

In 1950, Northwest Airlines flight 2501, with 58 people on board crashed into Lake Michigan. A tragedy no doubt, but the mystery surrounds the fact that the DC-4 has never been found, and the reason for the crash remains unknown.

The plane was used during World War II as a transport plane, and the evening it went down it had left New York's LaGuardia Airport bound for Seattle. The pilot had requested to descend to 2,500 feet at 12:13 a.m., "because of a severe electrical storm which was lashing the lake with high velocity winds". He was denied due to traffic in the area, and after this the plane disappeared from the radar.

The crew was Captain Robert C. Lind, 35; co-pilot Verne F. Wolfe, 35, and stewardess Bonnie Ann Feldman, 25. The passengers included 27 women, 22 men and six children. Both pilots were well trained and experienced.

Approximately two hours later two policemen reported seeing a red light hovering over Lake Michigan which lasted only 10 minutes. This observation would later be used to claim they had seen a UFO.

By dawn, it was presumed the plane had crashed. The US Navy, US Coast Guard and police from surrounding states joined in the search. At 6:30 p.m. the coast guard found an oil slick, aircraft debris and a logbook floating in Lake Michigan, far from the shore. The following day a naval vessel near the slick found strong sonar targets. Floating debris was recovered in a four mile radius which included a fuel tank float, seat cushions, clothing, blankets, luggage, cabin lining and body parts.

Two weeks later portions of the bodies of two women were found; one two miles north of South Haven and the other about seven miles north at Glenn, Michigan. South Beach a popular spot was closed for over a week after the crash due to the large number of body parts that washed ashore.

Six months later the cause for the crash was listed as "unknown" and it has never been changed, nor has any major piece of the plane been found. At the time, it was the deadliest commercial airliner accident in American history.

In September, 2008 members of Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates (MSRA) were working with author and shipwreck hunter Clive Cussler to find the wreckage of Flight 2501.

Valerie Van Heest and Chriss Lyon with MSRA interviewed former personnel from the Coast Guard who recalled that body parts were taken to their station in St. Joseph, and Louis Kerlikowske the Berrien County coroner took charge of the remains afterward.

Lyon found a single handwritten line in the sexton's register indicating the place of the mass grave. It was dated July 3, 1950 and read "body parts from airplane crash". What was left of the passengers was cremated. Their families were never notified, and there was speculation if this was done purposefully.

The family of 47 of the 58 passengers were found and advised of the discovery, and invited to attend a ceremony where a black granite marker was erected at the Riverview Cemetery, with the names of the passengers and the words, "In Memory of Northwest Flight 2501, June 23, 1950. Gone but Never Forgotten."

In 2015, another mass burial site was found in Lakeview Cemetery in South Haven. Mary Ann Frazier the sexton noticed a listing dating to 1951 for burial of "Northwest Airlines Crash Victims" in the register. Like the other location it was unmarked.

St. Joe Monument Works donated a tombstone for the site and had it in place a few days before the 65th anniversary of the crash. A remembrance service was held at this cemetery as well.

Standing stones found by Dr. Holley at Grand Traverse Bay in 2007

Lake Michigan's Standing Stones

The mystery of the triangle has been blamed on bad weather, bad judgment, bad luck, UFOs and a line of stones stretching for a mile, 40 feet below the surface of Grand Traverse Bay. They were discovered in 2007 by Mark Holley, professor of underwater archeology at Northwestern Michigan College.

One stone set apart from the others has a carving resembling a mastodon, which went extinct 10,000 years ago.

The stones have been dated to about 7,000 B.C., which predates Stonehenge by 4,000 years and was 2,000 years after the Ice Age ended.

Mastodon carving, standing stones Grand Traverse Bay

A similar structure was found in Lake Huron. It's believed to be a corridor that connected northeast Michigan and southern Ontario when it was dry land, and was used for hunting. The limestone corridor is 9,000 years old. There is a possibility the site in Grand Traverse Bay served the same purpose.

Dr. Holley has kept the exact location of the stones a secret citing security reasons.