Richard Bennett, a professional diver and author, has spent more than 20 years and $100,000 of his own money searching for the sunken fortune: Any story that survives 100 years has to have some validity to it. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. June 27, 2022; how to get infinite lingots in duolingo; chegg payment options; poverty island shipwreck . The SS Ira H. Owen was a Great Lakes freighter that sank near Outer Island in the Apostle Islands, Lake Superior, in the Mataafa Storm on 28 November 1905.She was loaded with 116,000 bushels of barley which was considered a "light load". Unless it can be shown that someone built a ship on the Upper Great Lakes before 1790 that includes all these characteristics-then this wreck is La Salle's "Griffon." This year, the Discovery Channel aired an episode of their series, 'Expedition Unknown,' filmed in part at the Mississagi site of the wreck off Manitoulin Island. Shipwrecks. Case File: Poverty Island Treasure Location: Michigan Date: 1863 Description: Poverty Island is an island in Lake Michigan between St. Martin Island and Summer Island just south of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Never give upand God go with you! the souls of the sukin ship dont want the trezer found and lotid so the souls What say you, Mate. As he was pulling the chests up, one of the chests opened and the gold spilled to the bottom but he got four chests.When the person who wrote the story in the eighties tried to find the bartender on Washington Island to confirm the story he was long gone. However, Richard believes that there would be no record because the treasure was brought during a clandestine operation. poverty island shipwreck. Poverty Island is a small island in the U.S. state of Michigan. Its an individual achievement. Unsolved Mysteries Wiki is a FANDOM TV Community. of that ship will never leat that trezer leave the merky deps of the water Despite the lack of a paper trail, the legend of the secret shipment has persisted. Yetnone has accompanied Steve on his dives, the couple saidin an interview last week at theirwaterfront condominium in Charlevoix. Rumors were that the bartender found the gold. After a few days, filming was concluded. Travel the Great Lakes on a floating mansion with new Viking cruise ships, Report: Recycling in Michigan reaches 19.3%, up 35.4% in 3 years, Want more news like this? After two years sifting through satellite imagery, Mr Libert found what he believed was the rest of the wreck, and this was later confirmed in a September 2018 dive. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. The scientists and divers searched a wider area Thursday near Poverty Island, a few miles offshore of a remote section of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, with equipment that probes beneath the lake bed for signs of buried objects. Traveling up the seaway to the Great Lakes seems to me a very odd way to reach Richmond VA. The beleaguered South, strapped for capital, put out a desperate call for relief to France. However, as the wooden boxes were brought to the surface, the chests broke free and returned to the watery depths. In 1863 she grounded on Middle Island, near Thunder Bay, MI and was declared a total loss, but later recovered. I would love to be there when this particular treasure is found and recovered. In the early 1920s,a freighter ran aground on Poverty Island. They then set the ship on fire. In an email, a DNR spokesman said the wreckage the Liberts have targeted can't be the Griffon: "Our archeologists review of recently published media images reveals the remains of a shipwreck that features typical late 19th-century Great Lakes shipbuilding materials and methodologies, and scantlings that are entirely too large to be a French colonial vessel. Hauling it by boat to the island was to dangerous, making the boat seem like towing a rock, so the lil craft never made it down to the bottom. He mentioned this ship. (The program is free to the public but advance registration is required; search under calendar.rhpl.org, move the cursor to May 12 and click on "Solving the First Great Lakes Maritime Mystery."). When a Union ship began attacking, the captain had the crew throw the treasure chests overboard in the waters off poverty island, so the gold could not be . We had dived the Clark a hundred time and still lost it for a while. "We don't really have anything onthe Griffon. By early 1864 the Union blockade was so strong only one in three blockade runners made it though. The Poverty Island Wildfire ignited June 26, 2016 by a lighting strike on a 200 square-acre island off Michigan's Garden Peninsula in Lake Michigan. Cleanup the TREASURE Hunter's House in The Forest. Summer Island in Lake Michigan, but never reached its destination. JUDES CHILDRENS HOSPITAL /GOOD LUCK to all Treasure Hunters Everywhere. Also reported ashore on Twin River Point . Similarly, in 2014, treasure hunters Kevin Dykstra and Frederick J. Monroe claimed the discovery of the wreck near Frankfort, Michigan. 2020 MYSTERIES & HISTORIES. Fairport appeals from the district court's grant of . Nevertheless, Bennett is quite confident that he is very close to the treasure. The ship disappeared with all six crew members and its cargo of furs on its return trip of her maiden voyage that same year. More Controversy on the Roswell Affair: An Alien Accident? According to the legend, Napoleon Bonaparte was desperate to assist the South during the Civil War. However, there were those that didnt believe it, and got off their behinds and proved it was curved. In 1929, a group of sailors were said to have snagged the five chests with their anchor. According to Mr and Mrs Libert, The Griffin is a good match for wreckage found in 2018 near Poverty Island, Lake Michigan. of Michigan intervened under, inter alia, the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 (the ASA), 43 U.S.C. This particular drone video offers unique insight into the island's rugged natural . Now they're retired in Charlevoix, a four-hour boat ride from the dive site that they hope will someday disprove thenaysayers. Often considered the first ship lost on the Great Lakes, little was known about it until shipwreck hunters Stevie and Kathie Libert set to work. (Image: Great Lakes Exploration Group via Pen News ). Only time will tell. But Im a dreamer, and Im a gambler. Door County is also known for are shipwrecks, Death's Door and legends Contact me if your interested Mr Bennett. A coast guard boat carrying bodies arrives in port after the shipwreck. "It started with a junior high teacher, talking about early European explorers. He has spent many years in the Great Lakes searching for shipwrecks. If you have finances why not do your own search. The Griffin is then said to have become a ghost ship, with the crew apparently heard chanting as she sails among the clouds on moonlit evenings. Sanilac Shores also is the resting spot for the wreck of the Sport, a 57-foot steel-hulled tugboat that sank in a gale in December 1920. Bennett is the author of: 1) Deep Quest The Entry 2) The Sunken Treasure of Poverty Island 3) Island of Bones and the award recipient of: Its littered with the bones, timbers and planks of wrecked vessels. History: Richard Bennett, a professional diver and . For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. I have been fascinated by treasure hunting all my life whether on land or sea its addictive. Having a museum historian carbon-date it to the same era left them eager for the adventure. #1. He's written articles for MU and Daily Grail and has been a guest on Coast to Coast AM and Binnal of America. Thousands of vessels from canoes to car ferries and steamers to modern ore boats have sailed these "inland seas" and unknown numbers still remain - settled on the lakes bottom in watery graves. Bennett has devised an ingenious underwater sled to comb the murky depths of Lake Michigan. At 3 a.m. on September 19, 1933, a sudden wind blew the vessel onto the rocky shore of Lake Michigan's Poverty Island. Id love to join Mr Bennett and help with the salvage, Im. I believe it is true. It was late August in 1994 when the crew of "Unsolved Mysteries" arrived, and the county was ready for them. The Liberts dispute that statement, pointing to their years of studying all they could find about the construction of 17th-century French ships, much of which they summarize andillustratein their book. DON'T MISS:Mountain range disappeared into Yellowstone supervolcano magma chamber[INSIGHT]Scientists stunned at 'perfect' Ice Age discovery: 'Could have died[REVEALED]Mary Rose breakthrough: Ship was 'six minutes from being saved'[QUOTES]. Im a commercial fishermen and own many boats that could be very useful in the search. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Proof or not, it's certain that a storied chunk of the Great Lakes' mystery, romance and tragedy lies, somewhere, inthe watery grave of Le Griffon. By Hannah Pennington, Published on Jul 28, 2022. The advantage today is the sophisticated equipment available for such endeavors its available however not inexpensive. said a Chicago man named Frank Pea spent three summers in the late 1930s and early 1940s exploring the depths around Poverty Island with a ship named the St. Lawrence and a diving bell. Are 5 chests of gold under Lake Michigan? Likewise, they claim a bowsprit discovered a few miles away in 2001 is another part of the vessel. Many believed the Jesuits were responsible for the ships disappearance. I'd be more than happy to help. Will the underwater sled find the treasure? One crew braved overcast skies and choppy waters to venture out to Poverty Island and film underwater terrain while another film crew worked just north of Cana Island. Whether the Liberts found the Griffonor merely stumbled on the watery wreckage of some unidentified old ship, their book and the saga of their search open a door to the fascinating earliest days of European exploration inthe Great Lakes, before the founding of Detroit in 1701. Suddenly, a storm descended on them, almost as if to deny them the treasure. True or not, the legend lives on for those who believe it and are brave enough to attempt the search in the cold and often stormy weather. The wooden and steel vessels didnt sink, they floated onto the rocks, were smashed to pieces, and distributed by currents and waves all around the bays half under water until they became waterlogged and sunk. Again, no Griffin. Door County has long been a magnet for famous people who have sought itsnatural beauty and long, lovely coastline. His belief in the treasure has been bolstered by Steve Harrington, a maritime historian, but another historian, Chuck Feltner, debates the veracity of the treasure since there is no record of a ship sinking there despite flawlessly kept records of ships lost on Lake Michigan. Michigan Brothers Finally Unearth 220-Year-Old Secret Hidden In Oak Island. Hello Mr. Bennett Case File: Poverty Island Treasure Spending years building long running, fast boats he could outrun the storm in, once getting to the island from Traverse City area. Is a sunken fortune hidden in the bottom of Lake Michigan? The Griffin is believed to be the first ship of European design to sail the upper Great Lakes. As we know the story of Poverty Island treasure has been around a long time. Those have been around since the story broke into the diving industry by Skin Diver Magazine in 1969. By Michael Greshko. Poverty Island lighthouse. One day, Karl would claim that he had seen a salvage ship out in the water, allegedly excitedly working on dredging something up from the depths, after which the crews could be heard loudly rejoicing, but a storm would come in and sink the ship to send them and whatever they had found back to the bottom. Rum Runner, You are correct about many people looking for the Treasure of Poverty Island. Even with modern search equipment it took wreck hunters many years to find the Captain Lawrence and she was a schooner length ship. Poverty Island is currently owned by the federal government. According to the boy, a storm hit that night, and the salvage ship sank with all the men on board. It's a win-win. The wreckage lies approx. The keelson structure with mast steps, paired floors and futtocks, and ceiling timbers all suggest a sailing craft, probably a schooner or schooner-barge, that was built and operated during the last half of the 1800s. Scientists stunned at 'perfect' Ice Age discovery: 'Could have died Mary Rose breakthrough: Ship was 'six minutes from being saved', Archaeology: Shipwreck so well preserved you could walk down steps, 'Ship swallower' off British coast has claimed '50,000 lives', Bermuda Triangle bombshell as probe uncovered 80-year-old shipwreck. 10. The story was convincing enough that several treasure hunters had tried and failed to find the reputed five or more chests of gold supposedly located somewhere on the islands coastline. The island is about 250 km west of Athens in the Ionian Sea. Le Griffon was the first full-sized European style sailing ship on the upper Great Lakes that was built and commanded by the French explorer Ren-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1679. A hard-luck ship: 6 lives were lost in a boiler explosion, 1871; sank in Welland Canal, 1872; major fires in 1880, 1892, 1898, 1899 and 1906, sank on Lake Superior [Portage Canal] in 1906. . History. Lost In Michigan books are ON SALE this weekendon AmazonHERE, It would really mean a lot to me if you Subscribe to Lost In Michigan, Do you want to know when I post something new? Nevertheless, Bennett is quite confident that he is very close to the treasure. You are using an out of date browser. No new facts were discovered during filming,nor was any gold. At the time, one of the favorite routes of vessels making their runs was to take the Poverty Island Passage, between Poverty and the Gull Islands, as it was considered to be a sort of short cut, although this was balanced out by the dangers caused by the many shoals of the area. After a long courtship and college degrees, they married in 1981. Be very careful of rock ledges and shoals on the south and east entrance of Jackson Harbor; stay between the red and green markers. Shipwreck hunters have been desperately searching for The Griffin since it sank to the murky depths of Lake Michigan while carrying a valuable cargo of furs in 1679. . Paul Paul Heersink has also been collecting data on sunken ships during World War II for seven years. "Kevin got suited up," said Monroe. He met Kathie in high schoolwhen he returned on crutches after a football injury and teachers asked her to carry his books. People are dumb. Now, the program was on its way toDoor County. It wasthe first big ship to sail the Great Lakes. The wreck believed to be the Griffin was found near Poverty Island on Lake Michigan. The bowsprit is believed to have broken off before the rest of the ship sank. There are many new facts that appear to support the legend. As he walked the room, he said, 'Who knows? Professional diver and owner of a diving school and shop in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, Bennet became fascinated and obsessed with the legend of the Poverty Island lost treasure back in 1968, and has been looking for it ever since. Youll find many pieces of ships from the same era, but alas matey, wrong wreck. May he rest in peace. The Griffin, Mr Libert believes, was caught in a four-day storm. Its like being the first man to climb a mountain. Maybe because of Povertys inherit dangerous location this may not be for you. People believed the earth was flat for longer than that. I really hope you find them. so i thak people shood stop triying and this is my apinyin, i dont beleve this trezer reley egzists and i havint senn iny thing to shaing my mind. Maybe somebody will find that ship someday,'and he touched me on the shoulder.". A few years later, a group of investors in Chicago raised $50,000 to try their luck at Poverty Island. There are several theories of where the chests came from, one of them being, Jesse Strang the King of Beaver Island and the leader of a Mormoncolony on Beaver Island with the gold was collected from his followers. imagine a case of whitworth rifles, ahhhh. RELATED: Traveling Back: Witnesses watch bridge lift car, police search for driver, RELATED: Traveling Back: WWI vets honored fellow doughboys to the last man. Archaeologists have discovered a new communal grave tied to an infamous and bloody 1629 mutiny of Murder Island. The Liberts say the wreck lies near tiny, uninhabited Poverty Island, part of a chain of islands that runs southwest into Lake Michigan from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Tantalizing stories like these have stoked the imagination of treasure hunters from all over the world, and one of the most well-known of these is a man named Richard Bennett. Many theories and speculations arose and while the date is often wrong (some sources state that the event . They discovered the trunks while pulling up anchor, but before they could get it aboard, the anchor chain snapped and treasure and anchor were lost in the water. Rrrrrrrrrr/shiver me timbers/another treasure story/ Im hopeing this ones true/all I can say is/PLEASE/PLEASE/BE CAREFUL/Ive personally saved 5 children from drowning / including myself twice/true story/ MAY GOD BE WITH YOU /and PLEASE donate/some of the findings to /ST. Soshe joined his quest,although she is unable to dive with him because she has had a perforated eardrum since childhood. There is a reason why this book is accruate if not so well definded. Like all adventures in treasure hunting there is a lack of funding. "I've supported the historical part of it," including the accumulation and study of an entire wall of books about French exploration of North America, 17th-century shipbuilding techniques, and just about everything ever written from 1769 on about the Griffon. I Agree With You Jean Anne Arden Ah Am A Little Bit Speechless If That Were Me I Would Display It In The Museum! According to this tale, the Emperor arranged a secret shipment of gold bullion and coins to be brought overland through Canada and loaded onto a ship to be sent down the St. Lawrence River and into Lake Michigan en route to Chicago, where it was to be brought overland down South. Ferries to Zakynthos run 7 times per day between 5:30am and 10:30pm and cost . Reports by French explorers and missionaries said Native Americans told them they saw the ship go down with all hands. While this sounds like just an old sailor's legend, there are some historical accounts that somewhat give the story credence. The Griffin is believed to be the first ship of European design to sail the upper Great Lakes. It may be difficult to identify the wreckage with 100% certainty, but park service officials said the Savannah is a top contender among Fire Island's known shipwrecks. Most of what you may read in the near future about this subject will be gleamed from a new book that has just been printed. Reuters. More than 14,400 migrants have arrived in Italy by boat this year so far, compared to 5,470 in the same period last . The area is very treacherous. According to Mr Libert, the state feels we are encroaching upon their sovereignty and feels we are nothing more than treasure hunters intruding on the rights of academia and archaeologists. He's been searching the waters of Lake Michigan near tiny Poverty Island for decades, and now shipwreck hunter Steve Libert thinks he has found the remains of the Griffin, used by a 17th-century . After the discovery of the bowsprit, a 10-year legal battle with the State of Michigan prevented explorers from excavating the rest of the ship. Body Count Rises on 400-Year-Old 'Murder Island' Shipwreck. In either event, the chests of gold never arrived. The treasure story reaches back to 1863, when the tide of the Civil War was turning in favor of the Union. I wrote a screenplay about a scuba accident and it was the thing sleepless nights are made of. They allegedly reached out to none other than the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte III to request funds. Years later, he was shipwrecked off the coast of Texas and killed in 1687 by mutinous soldiers, according to historians cited by the Liberts. The treasure plummeted back to its watery grave. They just sat there (on gun carriages). According to the boy, a storm hit that night, and the salvage ship sank with all the men on board. Often considered the first ship lost on the Great Lakes, little was known about it until shipwreck hunters Stevie and Kathie Libert set to work. Join MU Plus+ and get exclusive shows and extensions & much more! Support of that kind coming through the North was not probable. Any story that survives 100 years has to have some validity to it. Eduard Bohlen, Namibia. Shipwreck hunter Steve Libert believes he has positively identified the broken wreckage at this location to be the missing vessel; however, the wreck remains have not been officially identified. The only way to really find this treasure is to have human beings on the sled visually looking at the bottom. The Poverty Island Treasure story has been arranged and rearranged with the same slim two sentences or at most a few paragraphs. Poverty Island is a small island in the U.S. state of Michigan. See more in this clip from Season 3, "Return to Poverty Isla. However, Richard believes that there would be no record because the treasure was brought during a clandestine operation. The Poverty Island Treasure story has been arranged and rearranged with the same slim two sentences or at most a few paragraphs. Steve and Kathie Libert, a husband and wife team, determined that a wreck found in 2018 near the Poverty Island in Lake Michigan, was likely that of the mysterious Griffin. The best part- At the couples condo, they showed the Free Press their underwater metal detectors, a wall of research books, and a sculpture of a Griffon the French coat of arms symbol for which the ill-fated ship was named as they made plans for Steve to dive again this summer. In 1994, when countyresidents heard that a television crew was on its way to document a mystery, it seemed like the best of these worlds were coming together within the county. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. But then it becomes clear that this is the book's major flaw. Later, a lighthouse keeper's son, Carly Jessen, watched men on a salvage boat searching for something in the water offof Poverty Island, and the young man bet that it had something to do with the gold. 15 metres (49 ft 3 in) deep, but has been ruled out as the Plymouth and is most likely the Erastus Corning. Beat of luck be safe and careful. ON LAKE MICHIGAN NEAR POVERTY ISLAND, Mich. - In a remote part of northern Lake Michigan, divers have started looking at an underwater pit, hoping to find the resting place of the Griffin, a . In Gytheio, you can find 'Dimitrios', a 67-meter-long ship, sunk and rusty, quite near the shore, easy to explore up close and swim nearby. First, the mystery, which centers on Poverty Island, a speck of rocky land off the eastern coast of Wisconsin in the constantly frigid waters of Lake Michigan. Sitting out in Lake Michigan, south of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and located between St. Martin Island and Summer Island is a windswept, storm-kissed slash of rock called Poverty Island. The delivery came down the St. Lawrence River between the United States and Canada and into Lake Michigan en route to Chicago, but somehow, the Union became aware of the delivery and attacked the boat. She was 26 feet wide and 105 feet long and stood 60 feet off the bottom. [1] The island is within Delta County in Lake Michigan and is home to the Poverty Island Light Station, an abandoned lighthouse which is in disrepair. Some, maybe more than some, might admit they didnt believe it. You know the house big and very old on Lisbon Do you really think it s there? Mr Libert will continue to search the bed of Lake Michigan using non-intrusive techniques, with the ultimate aim of finding a cannon with the date stamped on it. The sunken salvage ship Captain Lawrence from 1933 was discovered in 1993 and found not to contain the gold. It was built with the intention of finding a route through North Americas Great Lakes to reach China and Japan. There were considerable changes to the story line for the sake of TV time constraints. They lie in shallow water and in the deepest . You are correct, people did believe the earth was flat. How can you challenge a mans mettle any better than on an operation like this? It is difficult to tell how many people actually dived near Poverty Island over the years. Another skeptic is Corey Adkins, communications content director for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. Marty Lagina and Matty Blake return to the eerie . The sunken salvage ship Captain Lawrence from 1933 was discovered in 1993 and found not to contain the gold. The most popular origin for the story of Poverty Island's lost treasure begins in 1863, during the American Civil War. Hopefully they do some side-scan sonar on it and they can get to the Bottom of the story! The content is about the subject and little else. The only way to really find this treasure is to have human beings on the sled visually looking at the bottom. In most versions of the tale, the chests, usually said to be five of them, were chained together, making it likely that if one is to find one, they will find all of them. Poverty Island. All Rights Reserved. The legend of Poverty Island gold had long been told among those who followed maritime stories and enjoyedtales about lost treasure. It sank in the North Atlantic Ocean during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City on April 14th, 1912. Le Griffon and the Huron Islands 1679: Our Story of Exploration and Discovery was written by Mr and Mrs Libert and published by Mission Point Press in 2021. Results: Unsolved. Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com, Diving couple say they've found Great Lakes' oldest shipwreck, but doubters abound. What if more than $400 million in gold is still sitting in the cold water just off Poverty Island waiting for a brave soul to discover it? May I get to know you sir. That sounds a little like maybe he found it and just sort of slipped away. In the 1860s, this place was in the middle of a huge boom in maritime shipping and commerce, as the area has many steel mills and was connected to the booming Peninsula Railroad. I've got to get my finances in order though first to divulge into this mission Keep the info coming. The State of Michigan continues to prevent an in-depth excavation. Many people dream about winning the lottery or being a great sports figure. That s interesting. Mr Libert explained the discovery had been long in the making, sparked by a history teacher when he was still at school. Poverty Island Lighthouse, U.S. Coast Guard Archives, PovertyIsland is located in northern lake Michigan and one of several islands marking the entrance to Big Bay De Noc and Green Bay, as in the bay in lake Michigan, not the city. It tells a story of one village in rural medieval Japan, following one boy Isaku, as his family struggles to get food essential for their survival. sure some funds would help with equipment. Since I began my latest job Ive been interested in it more as we have tech available that can discriminate gold returns from other metals. There have been numerous quote-unquote discoveries of the Griffon that were neverproven," Adkins said. What about one of those small manned submarines?? Bring anything up remotely resembling an item from a shipwreck and they'll seize everything.