A steamer built for winter
In the 1890s, steamers carried people and freight across Lake Michigan all year. The Chicora was one of them. She was built in Detroit in 1892 for the Graham & Morton Transportation Company, which ran steamers between Lake Michigan ports.
She was a wooden steamer, more than 200 feet long, that kept running through the winter. In winter, her run was between Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and St. Joseph, Michigan, home of the steamship line and its head, John Graham. St. Joseph is a harbor up the shore from Michigan City.
Winter crossings were a gamble. Short days, cold, ice and sudden gales made the trip much harder than in summer. That is why the people who ran these boats kept a close eye on the weather, and why a single telegram could matter so much.
The last trip
In January 1895, the Chicora was under the command of Captain Edward Stines. For the trip home from Milwaukee she carried a load of freight that included flour.
Early on the morning of Monday, January 21, 1895, she left Milwaukee for St. Joseph, before dawn. The weather looked calm.
Back in St. Joseph, Graham did not like what he saw on the barometer. A fast-falling barometer means a storm is coming. He sent word to the captain not to sail. The message arrived too late. The Chicora had already left the dock.
The storm
Later that day, a gale and a blizzard swept across the lake. The Chicora should have reached St. Joseph within hours of leaving Milwaukee. She never arrived.
Everyone aboard was lost, and no bodies were ever recovered. Even the number of people aboard is uncertain. One early history counts 23 crew and one passenger. The Wisconsin Marine Historical Society counts 25 crew and one passenger. Research by the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society, starting from the steamship line’s list of 23 men, suggests the true count could be as low as 22 or as high as 25. What all the sources agree on is that about two dozen people, crew and at least one passenger, did not come home.
What came ashore
In the days after the storm, wreckage from the Chicora washed up and froze into the ice along the Michigan shore between South Haven and Saugatuck. Searchers found pieces of the ship, and both of her masts were recovered from the ice.
One small survivor turned up farther south. A little Skye terrier known to have been on the Chicora turned up alive at the door of a roadhouse at Pottowatomie Park, about eight miles south of Benton Harbor. Newspapers reported the find that month.
The masts found a second life. People in the village of Douglas, Michigan, used one as a flagpole. It is now kept at the Allegan County Historical Society’s museum in Allegan, Michigan.
Never found
The Chicora has never been found. Searches in the weeks and months after the storm came up empty. Shipwreck hunters, including the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association, have kept searching for her for decades.
Most researchers believe the hull lies somewhere off the Michigan shore, but no one knows exactly where. A wooden ship lost in a blizzard leaves few clues. Apart from her masts and scattered wreckage, the lake has given nothing back. Until she is found, the Chicora remains a well-known mystery of the lake.
Remembering the Chicora
For people along the south shore, the Chicora is a reminder that Lake Michigan can turn fast, especially in winter. A calm morning gave no hint of the storm by afternoon, and the warning that might have saved the ship came too late. Today we have forecasts and marine warnings that the crew of 1895 could only have wished for. It is also a story about the families in St. Joseph and the other lake towns who waited for a boat that never came in.
If you want to learn more, the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association and the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society keep her story alive. For more about the lake we share, see our Lake Michigan page, our storm patterns guide, and more local history.
Questions
When did the Chicora sink?
She left Milwaukee early on January 21, 1895, and was lost in a gale and blizzard later that day.
How many people were on the Chicora?
About two dozen. Sources disagree on the exact number, from 22 to 26, but all agree everyone aboard was lost.
Has the Chicora ever been found?
No. Wreckage washed ashore between South Haven and Saugatuck, but the ship itself has never been found.
What happened to the Chicora's dog?
A Skye terrier known to have been aboard came ashore alive about eight miles south of Benton Harbor, according to 1895 reports.
Sources: Michigan Shipwreck Research Association: Chicora · J.B. Mansfield, History of the Great Lakes (1899), via Maritime History of the Great Lakes · Wisconsin Marine Historical Society: The Chicora · Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society: Chicora, three additional victims · Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society: Photograph of flagpole made from Chicora mast · Buffalo Enquirer, Jan. 28, 1895, via Maritime History of the Great Lakes