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ALGOMA, Wis. - The Wisconsin Historical Society announces the listing of the Trinidad Shipwreck on the State Register of Historic Places. State Historic Preservation Officer Daina Penkiunas presented the certificate to Brendon Baillod and Robert Jaeke. The shipwreck is located 9.5 miles east of the Algoma Pierhead Lighthouse, partially embedded in the lakebed 270 feet below the surface of Lake Michigan.

The Trinidad represents a class of vessels called canal schooners or canallers. They were unique to the Great Lakes, designed to transit the locks of the Welland Canal in Ontario, bypassing Niagara Falls while carrying the maximum amount of cargo through the locks with only inches to spare. The bow, deck machinery, stern cabin, stern and the Trinidad’s hull remain intact, providing historians and archaeologists with the unique opportunity to study canal schooner construction and Great Lakes shipping trade.

The Trinidad was built at Grand Island, New York, in 1867 and sank off Algoma in 1881 while sailing to Chicago with a load of coal. Canallers like the Trinidad were an integral part of the maritime transportation system, delivering grain from the Midwest to eastern ports and returning with coal that heated Midwestern cities and powers factories.

State and federal laws protect this shipwreck. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this site. Removing, defacing, displacing or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime. More information on Wisconsin’s historic shipwrecks may be found by visiting Wisconsin’s Great Lakes Shipwrecks website: https://www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org/Home#anchor3

To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit: www.wisconsinhistory.org.

About the Wisconsin Historical Society

The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.