Maritime disaster on Lake Erie

I started out this afternoon with several stops to make and was headed for the bank to finally activate my new debit card and deposit a check, but a short detour to the north took me to Lakefront Lodge and a pocket-sized park with a great view of Lake Erie. A good place, I decided, to get a picture of the lake for my Blip journal.

As you can see from the position of the flag, a pretty stiff breeze was blowing, and the air was unexpectedly hazy as I stood on the overlook facing the lake. But what really took me by surprise was a historical marker commemorating the maritime disaster that took place within sight of the overlook in the mid-19th century. I don't remember noticing it in the past. Here is what I read on the sign:

The Griffith Disaster, 1850

Following the completion of the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo, New York, Lake Erie became an important link on an all water route for immigrants traveling from the eastern seaboard into the Midwest. The 600-Ton lake steamer G. P. Griffith, launched in 1847, was one of dozens built to capitalize on this booming trade. on June 17, 1850, outbound with more than 300 passengers on a three-day voyage from Buffalo to Toledo, caught fire and burned about 220 yards from this overlook. Many of the German, English, Irish, and Scandinavian settlers were laden with money sewn into their clothing, and few reached shore. Contemporary accounts list 286 lost. Many were buried in a mass grave on the beach, since reclaimed by Lake Erie. The Griffith incident remains one of the worst maritime disasters on the Great Lakes.

As I considered the best angle for my blip, two couples walked down the path and stopped nearby. They said hello and asked if I was from the area. I could tell from their accents that they were not. It turned out that they were from Dallas, Texas, and on their way to Niagara Falls for some leaf-peeping. They had decided that the Cleveland area was a good place to stop for the night, and following the directions on their GPS, they had set out to find a beach and get a view of Lake Erie. We were standing on a bluff with a great view of the lake, but no way to get down to the beach, so I told them about Headlands Beach State Park, about 25 minutes east of where we were standing. Hopefully their GPS could get them there. After all, it had already brought them from Dallas to Cleveland, apparently in one day, which seems pretty incredible to me. I hope they made it to Headlands and enjoyed a walk on the beach.

Thank you to those who commented on my blip of Emmy yesterday. I am so very proud of her, and it is a very important page in my Blip journal.