Overview
- Shipwreck World announced that Paul Ehorn’s team located the Lac La Belle in October 2022 about 20 miles offshore between Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin.
- Ehorn narrowed the search using a clue shared by wreck hunter Ross Richardson and found the target with side-scan sonar after roughly two hours on the lake.
- The public reveal came in February 2026 after weather delays pushed a return dive to summer 2025 to capture a three-dimensional video model for verification.
- The wreck’s exterior is coated with invasive quagga mussels and its upper cabins are gone, while the hull appears intact and oak interiors remain in good condition.
- Built in Cleveland in 1864, the 217-foot steamer sank in an 1872 gale that killed eight when a lifeboat capsized, and Ehorn’s find marks the 15th shipwreck of his career as he prepares to present the discovery at the Ghost Ships Festival on March 7.