http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6899650
Edmund Fitzgerald life ring found
Updated: Aug 8, 2007 02:37 AM EDT
Video: Brett Thomas looks back at the Edmund Fitzgerald in 2000
Video: Perspective of found Edmund Fitzgerald life ring
Slideshow: The Edmund Fitzgerald
By RACHAEL RUIZ
CONKLIN -- Joe Rasch and his two daughters, Emily and Elizabeth, were looking for agates on the Lake Superior coastline last Friday. Instead, they found a piece of history - a life ring from the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Rasch admits he didn't realize what he found when he first saw the orange ring lying under a white pine tree that had fallen. Only when his daughter Emily read the words on the ring, it hit him.
"It was pretty hard to read," Emily said. "I saw the Ed pretty good, then Fitz, so."
They made the discovery near the Keweenau Peninsula, about 200 miles from where the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in November 1975. Rasch said he gets chills whenever he carries the ring, and doesn't believe it was a coincidence.
"It was time for it to be found," he told 24 Hour News 8, "for people to be reminded of all 29 people who went down and the power of Lake Superior. It wasn't that long ago."
Rasch, an apple farmer, took the ring to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The director said he has no reason to believe it is not the real thing.
"We've had a lot of questions, but the life ring isn't talking, telling any stories," Rasch said. "We get all kind of responses (from people). Mostly their eyes bug out, and their jaw drops, and they're 'No kidding, no way.'"
Rasch and his family plan to donate it to the museum, which already has one ring from the ship. Elizabeth learned the Fitzgerald "carried iron ore and stuff."
They are thinking of bringing the life ring to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on November 10, the 32nd anniversary of the Fitzgerald's sinking.
On the Net:
Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum