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Statewide
Reporting from in and around Illinois.Listen to Statewide on WNIJ Saturdays 6-7 a.m. and Sundays 6-7 p.m.

Statewide: A half century later, mystery still surrounds the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS | By Sean Crawford
Published November 6, 2025 at 2:27 PM CST
The Edmund Fitzgerald
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
The Edmund Fitzgerald

The Edmund Fitzgerald sank 50 year ago, Nov. 10, 1975, and the legend lives on. The author of a new book, The Gales of November, joins us to discuss what we know about the freighter that went down, taking 29 men to their graves, and what is still unclear.

Listen to the radio transmission from the ship that fateful night.

The Edmund Fitzgerald sits on the bottom of Lake Superior 530 feet below the surface.
Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society
The Edmund Fitzgerald sits on the bottom of Lake Superior 530 feet below the surface.

Also:

* We visit with a former students in Urbana whose friendship was forged during the desegregation of schools in the community.

* Sean Crawford talks with Steven Herman, the former White House Bureau Chief and Chief National Correspondent for Voice of America. The news service, aimed at a foreign audience, closed this year under orders from the Trump Administration.

* Lauren Frost has the story of the incarcerated who often find reminders of their past tattooed on the bodies, and efforts to provide tattoo removal.

* Chris Bentley reports from southern Illinois, near the Mississippi River, to find out what it's like to live with the river.

Illinois
Sean Crawford
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See stories by Sean Crawford