Four miles offshore in Lake Michigan

Summary

America Shipwreck (Canaller)
Lake Michigan, Town of Carlton, Kewaunee County
Construction date: 1873
Builder: Archibald Muir

Located four miles offshore and eight miles south southeast of Kewaunee in Lake Michigan, the America lies in 120 feet of water. The hull is somewhat broken up, but nearly all hull structure and rigging are extant. The America was constructed by shipwright Archibald Muir near Port Huron, Michigan, in 1873. A signature ship of the Muir shipyard, canallers were a unique schooner vessel type that developed on the Great Lakes and were designed to transit the Welland Canal locks while carrying the maximum amount of cargo possible. With only inches to spare while passing through the locks, canallers carried grain from ports on western Lakes Michigan and Superior to eastern ports on Lake Ontario (Oswego, New York and Kingston, Ontario). Canallers returning to the upper lakes were often loaded with coal that was used to power and heat Midwestern cities.

The America provides archaeologists and historians with the unique opportunity to study the construction techniques unique to Great Lakes canallers and the grain trade and the role these vessels played in regional commerce. The America site has yielded significant information on Great Lakes canaller construction and has great potential to yield further information in future years.

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.

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