Diving to the Edmund Fitzgerald with Ric Mixter: Uncovering the Wreckage Beneath Lake Superior

Most people know the Edmund Fitzgerald from the song. But few have actually seen the wreck with their own eyes.

In this episode of the Backroads Bill Podcast, shipwreck diver and storyteller Ric Mixter shares what it was really like to visit the bottom of Lake Superior and come face to face with one of Canada’s most haunting maritime disasters. He talks about what he saw down there, how the dive changed him, and why some parts of the story still don’t have answers.

We also get into Gordon Lightfoot’s famous ballad, what the song got right, what it missed, and how the real story continues to evolve almost 50 years later.


Check out Ric's book Tattletale Sounds here: https://shipwreckmuseum.com/product/tattletale-sounds-the-edmund-fitzgerald-investigations-book/


0:00 – Intro
5:30 – How the dive to the Fitzgerald came together
11:00 – What it felt like to see the wreck up close
17:00 – Exploring the site and what they discovered
23:00 – Breaking down the truth behind the song
30:00 – New tools that are changing shipwreck exploration
36:00 – Interviews with crew families and survivors
42:00 – What the wreck still hasn’t told us