Man accidentally discovers shipwreck hiding beneath Wisconsin 138 years after it went missing
A Wisconsin man has made a fascinating discovery at the bottom of Lake Michigan, uncovering a massive shipwreck some 138 years after it vanished without a trace.
While not quite as old as the 2,400-year-old Greek trading ship found at the bottom of the Black Sea, this is still a major archaeological find that gives us a glimpse into the past.
Even though there sadly isn't $130 million worth of treasure aboard like the Nossa Senhora do Cabo being found off the northeast coast of Madagascar, it's an important discovery.
WLUK reports on how Matt Olson came across the wreck of the Frank D. Barker while scouting for sites to take customers as part of his business, Door County Adventure Rafting.
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He spotted the submerged wreck near Rowleys Bay, Wisconsin, and referred the find to maritime archaeologists. A series of follow-up diving missions determined that the 137-foot-long shipwreck belonged to the Barker, which had been constructed in 1867 and sunk in 1887.
Discussing his discovery, Olson said: "I was looking on satellite images of the waters around the peninsula around here, and I happened to come across this sort of anomaly in the water. This object that maybe could be a shipwreck, maybe it's not."
While wrecks are typically found beneath hundreds of feet of water, the Frank D. Barker was in a shallow 24 feet.
Olson continued: "When we pulled the boat over it, we could faintly see it from the surface and that's why I was surprised no one had come across it yet."
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Barker sank after it ran into a limestone outcropping during foggy conditions.
That fateful mission saw the Barker heading for Escanaba, Michigan, attempting to collect a load of iron ore. Sadly, bad weather caused the ship to go off course, with the captain struggling to get the two-masted vessel back on track. The Barker was stranded on the nearby Spider Island until the weather improved, but ultimately, rescue attempts proved fruitless.
Wisconsin Historical Society Maritime Archaeologist Tamara Thomsen explained: "It was running light, it had no cargo, so it was sitting very high in the water and it got blown over this shoal that's on the end of Spider Island."
An October 1887 salvage mission first tried to save the Barker, followed by subsequent attempts in June, August, September, and October of 1888. This led to a total loss of the ship, which was valued at around $8,000 at the time and would be about $250,000 in today's money.
Olson is no stranger to tracking shipwrecks, and in 2024, he reported a schooner from 1857 (the Grey Eagle) to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
He also has the discovery of a scow schooner called the Sunshine to his name, which was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.
As for these finds, Colson concluded: "There's a lot of history around here in Door County and throughout the rest of the state, and a lot of this stuff has kind of been forgotten about, you know. A lot of these shipwrecks and their locations."