Overview
- Shipwreck World confirmed that a team led by Illinois diver Paul Ehorn located the Lac La Belle in October 2022 about 20 miles offshore between Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin.
- The wreck rests upright with an intact hull and preserved oak interiors, though its upper cabins are gone and the exterior is coated in invasive quagga mussels.
- Ehorn had searched for the steamer since 1965 and, using a tip from wreck hunter Ross Richardson, found it with side-scan sonar after roughly two hours on the water.
- Historical accounts describe the vessel sinking during an October 1872 gale after uncontrollable flooding, with eight deaths when a lifeboat capsized and 53 people aboard overall.
- Depth and coordinates have not been disclosed as the team produces a 3D photogrammetry and video record, highlighting growing urgency to document Great Lakes wrecks as mussels accelerate decay; the find is Ehorn’s 15th.