During her twenty-six years, the 267-foot Louisiana carried bulk grain, iron ore and coal. Her builders strengthened the inside of her wooden hull with innovative metal cross bracing with iron fasteners and multiple keelsons. Metal strapping provided longitudinal strength, supplemented by double-celled cargo holds both longitudinally and athwartships.

On her final voyage, the Louisiana departed from Lorain, Ohio with a load of coal. After delivering her cargo to Milwaukee, she departed in ballast [no cargo] for Escanaba, Michigan on November 12, 1913 to pick up a load of iron ore. While transiting the treacherous Death's Door at the north end of the Door County Peninsula, the Louisiana encountered one of the worst storms in Great Lakes' history. Heavy seas and winds in excess of seventy miles per hour battered the ship as she sought shelter in Washington Harbor, where she dropped her anchors. The storm was so intense, that with both anchors out and her engine at full forward, she still was pushed across the harbor into the shore where she caught fire and sank. All seventeen crewmembers escaped harm. The 90 miles per hour winds and 40-foot seas of this epic storm caused devastation throughout the Great Lakes, claiming 251 lives and damaging, stranding or wrecking 112 ships.

State and federal laws protect this shipwreck. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this shipwreck 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.