The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

50 years ago, a massive storm on Lake Superior sank the SS. Edmund Fitzgerald, along with her crew of 29 sailors and 26 thousand tons of taconite bound for the steel mills near Detroit. The Gordon Lightfoot song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald has turned this story into a great lakes legend. Over the past year I have been researching this shipwreck, great lakes cultural and environmental histories, and the extractive industries entangled in these stories that shape the places I inhabit today. I painted this story onto a crankie scroll, a old traditional storytelling method, and my wonderful collaborators Alex Griffin and Bozena Scheidel arranged a gorgeous version of the The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald to accompany it.

Please reach me at dio.cramer@gmail.com