Returning to the Scene of the Shipwrecks

 

Last fall, Tori Kiefer was part of a group of East Carolina University graduate students who came to the waters of Wisconsin to learn about surveying shipwrecks, as part of a field school run by ECU. 

 

This year, she’s back in Wisconsin to help make sure the experience runs smoothly for a new set of ECU dive students. 

 

“It’ll be cool to see the students go through the process of surveying a ship and figuring everything out,” said Kiefer. “When I mapped a shipwreck last year, it was in shallow water, and that was the big challenge. For this year’s group, it’ll be the water temperature. Lake Michigan can get pretty cold.” 

 

The summer gig’s a natural evolution for a woman who’s always loved shipwrecks. Kiefer fell in love with the waters of Lake Michigan while growing up in North Central Indiana. In 2007, while working on an undergraduate degree in anthropology, she decided to add diving to her skill set. She ended up adding an aquatics degree to the dual-major she earned from Ball State. Her interest in shipwrecks led her to the maritime archaeology program at East Carolina University—the same one that produced Caitlin Zant a few years ago. Zant and Tamara Thomsen are maritime archaeologists employed by the Wisconsin Historical Society and funded in part by Wisconsin Sea Grant. They’ll also be assisting the ECU field school.

 

Last year, Kiefer helped survey the Fleetwing, a wooden schooner wrecked in the shallow waters of Garrett Bay, Wisc.. This summer, the students in the field school will be focusing on surveying and creating a site map for the Atlanta, a passenger steamer in deeper waters about 150 feet off the shoreline near Sheboygan. At the end of the summer, Kiefer will write the nomination papers to add the Atlanta to the National Register of Historic Places. 

 

Kiefer remembers what it was like surveying her first Great Lakes wreck last year. 

 

“It was everything I ever thought it was going to be,” said Kiefer. “It was mysterious and murky and creepy and wonderful. I loved it.” 

 

While she’s in Wisconsin. Kiefer will also travel to Sturgeon Bay, where she’ll spend time working on her graduate thesis, examining the histories of ships that wrecked after being repurposed/converted from one type of vessel to another. For instance, several vessels were converted into stone barges, transporting massive blocks from the quarries near the Apostle Islands. 

 

After graduation, Kiefer hopes to return to the Great Lakes Region and Lake Michigan. She’s interested in the effects things like invasive species, winter ice formation and human interaction are having on Great Lakes shipwrecks. 

 

“In Wisconsin, there’s a human input to the equation,” Kiefer said. “Some places wall off their shipwrecks, but in Wisconsin we want you to go out and see them.”