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Idaho

Ontario waters · lost 1897

  • Storm
  • Lives lost: 19
  • Location withheld

This site's location is withheld. In Ontario waters, where the Ontario Heritage Act requires a licence for any work on a marine archaeological site. Position withheld; general area only. This page shows the general area only.

Bound from Buffalo for Milwaukee with general freight, the 34-year-old steamer Idaho foundered off Long Point in a November gale of rain and hail in 1897. Nineteen men died; two crewmen clinging to her mast were picked up by the steamer Mariposa.

The story

The Idaho was a wooden propeller built at Cleveland in 1863 by Peck & Masters, about 220 feet long and first enrolled at Cleveland that June. She was remeasured at Buffalo in June 1865, when her registered tonnage rose to about 1,111 gross tons.[1]

In early November 1897 she left Buffalo for Milwaukee with a cargo of general merchandise.[1] Off Long Point, on the Ontario side of the lake, she ran into a heavy gale with rain and hail and foundered. Wikipedia's list of 1897 shipwrecks places the loss about 12 miles above Long Point in about seven fathoms, roughly 42 feet, of water.[2]

Her captain and eighteen crew died. Two men survived on her mast and were taken off by the steamer Mariposa.[2,1] The HCGL vessel record agrees on nineteen lives lost and two saved.[1] Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks gives the same toll from a crew of 21 but dates the loss to November 4 rather than November 6.[3]

Wikipedia's article on Long Point notes that many vessels have been wrecked near the tip of the point, a long spit of sand that reaches far out into the lake from the Ontario shore.[4] The Idaho's wreck lies in Ontario waters, so this page gives the general area only.

Sources differ: Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks gives 4 November 1897; the HCGL record and Wikipedia's 1897 list give November 6.

Lives lost: Two crewmen were rescued from her mast by the steamer Mariposa.

Questions people ask

How many people died on the Idaho in 1897?

Nineteen, including her captain. Two crewmen were rescued from her mast by the steamer Mariposa.

Where did the Idaho sink?

Off Long Point, Ontario; Wikipedia's 1897 shipwreck list puts her about 12 miles above Long Point in roughly 42 feet of water.

Learn more

Museums and groups are linked for further reading; they are not connected with this site.

Look, don't take

Look, don't take. Shipwrecks and everything on them are protected by law; removing or disturbing anything can be a crime.

  • Ontario: under the Ontario Heritage Act no one may alter a marine archaeological site or remove an artifact from it without a provincial licence; fines for breaking this rule can reach $1,000,000.[5][6][7]

How Lake Erie wrecks are protected

Diving Lake Erie wrecks is dangerous: cold water, poor visibility, depth, entanglement and boat traffic. Nothing here is dive guidance or a dive position. Dive only with proper training, a qualified operator and current information from the groups that maintain moorings.

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Sources

  1. HCGL vessel record: IDAHO, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .
  2. List of shipwrecks in 1897, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  3. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  4. Long Point, Ontario, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  5. law-on-oha-part6, Government of Ontario (e-Laws). Accessed .
  6. law-on-oreg-11-06, Government of Ontario (e-Laws). Accessed .
  7. Atlantic (1848 ship), Wikipedia. Accessed .

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