Over a period variously estimated at 188 to 137 years, it has eluded platoons of treasure-The view from Poverty Island reveals a vast panorama of water . 2023 Copyright. The plausibletheory is that during the Civil War, a shipment of gold from NapoleonBonapartewas being transported thru the great lakes down the Mississippi to fund the Confederate army. I have no problem that you are using the underwater shots, but I would like a photo/video by Richard T. Bennett tag. When a Union ship began attacking, the captain had the crew throw the treasure chests overboard in the waters off poverty island, so the gold could not be . You are correct, people did believe the earth was flat. Nevertheless, Bennett is quite confident that he is very close to the treasure. Behrens and his crew of four escaped and took refuge on Poverty Island. At 3 a.m. on September 19, 1933, a sudden wind blew the vessel onto the rocky shore of Lake Michigan's Poverty Island. Nevertheless, Bennett is quite confident that he is very close to the treasure. Download our app for the latest ]. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. Cargo is scattered on the bottom with visibility typically ranging from 5 to 25 feet. Now that he believes he has found the clue to the location of the fabled Poverty Island treasure - five chests of French gold reputedly lost when pirates sank the vessel carrying the cargo in the 1860s - Libert finds himself in court attempting to prove he is the rightful owner of another shipwreck he says holds the key to the treasure's . Youll find many pieces of ships from the same era, but alas matey, wrong wreck. "I've been interested in this ship since I was 14," he said in an interview in Charlevoix last week. Its littered with the bones, timbers and planks of wrecked vessels. Around 300 passengers responded by climbing on to the deck, with large waves washing some out to sea. May he rest in peace. Over the course of decades, he has sunk over $100,000 of his own money in his endless quest, as well as around $30,000 from donations, all the while constantly scouring old news archives for stories, leads, and clues about the treasure. The keelson structure with mast steps, paired floors and futtocks, and ceiling timbers all suggest a sailing craft, probably a schooner or schooner-barge, that was built and operated during the last half of the 1800s. All, I am currently finishing a screenplay on the Poverty Island Gold. Covert projects rely on the uncommon. Yet the battle to find The Griffin has been riddled with issues. After La Salle's exploits in the Great Lakes, he led his followers down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, claiming all he'd seen for France. "Many of them didn't even know that an island was there," said coastguard Charles Cormier . At 4.30am on Monday 4 August 1845 in stormy weather, the Cataraqui struck a reef on the west coast of King Island less than 100 metres from shore. The Griffin is believed to be the first ship of European design to sail the upper Great Lakes. Sanilac Shores also is the resting spot for the wreck of the Sport, a 57-foot steel-hulled tugboat that sank in a gale in December 1920. Who knows? said a Chicago man named Frank Pea spent three summers in the late 1930s and early 1940s exploring the depths around Poverty Island with a ship named the St. Lawrence and a diving bell. The content is about the subject and little else. Without dreams life would be pretty boring. As he was pulling the chests up, one of the chests opened and the gold spilled to the bottom but he got four chests.When the person who wrote the story in the eighties tried to find the bartender on Washington Island to confirm the story he was long gone. "They weren't locked down. I often wonder if they thought it was round. In 1994, a TV program investigated the Door County legend that $400 million in gold lies submerged near Poverty Island. Professional diver and owner of a diving school and shop in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, Bennet became fascinated and obsessed with the legend of the Poverty Island lost treasure back in 1968, and has been looking for it ever since. As long as I have those things working for me, Ill probably continue to do it. The location and reason of her sinking has remained a mystery ever since.[5]. Poverty Island. You know the house big and very old on Lisbon Do you really think it s there? I for one started before we had any formal search devices, side scan, GPS that sort of equipment. Bennett has devised an ingenious underwater sled to comb the murky . Bennett, a professional diver and author of The Poverty Island Sunken Treasure Brief, has spent over forty-five years and $100,000 of his own money searching for the Civil War treasure. Thousands of vessels from canoes to car ferries and steamers to modern ore boats have sailed these "inland seas" and unknown numbers still remain - settled on the lakes bottom in watery graves. Carbon dating of the bowsprit estimated an age range within a year of The Griffins sinking in 1679. Fact; The legend first appeared in print in 1907 or 1910. However, Richard believes that there would be no record because the treasure was brought during a clandestine operation. In 1984 he found an anchor. Various seasons available now on Hulu. The other nearby wreckage, meanwhile, had been dated to between 1632 and 1982. The action steadily rises, but Bodeen . i beleve the boxis of gold will never be found or brat up for the simpel fakt Will the underwater sled find the treasure? Best wishes to Mr. Bennett and crew. It was explained that by using local talent, production costs could be lowered and the community had a part in the project. Thegroup's search team has discoveredseveral shipwrecks, including that of the 172-foot schooner-barge Atlanta, found just last yearand deemed "still beautiful after 130 years on the bottom of Lake Superior" by society Executive Director Bruce Lynn. This might seem like wishful thinking until you realize that in that era France coveted the steady cotton crop they received from the South, something it was thought would be disrupted with a Union victory. It is difficult to tell how many people actually dived near Poverty Island over the years. Le Griffon and the Huron Islands 1679: Our Story of Exploration and Discovery was written by Mr and Mrs Libert and published by Mission Point Press in 2021. Better to make it known and use the courts to reap a reward. Mr Libert said: The ship has no indications of fire damage to the wooden remains. As long as you dont take advantage of someone either by money or reputation I dont see how it can hurt. Pounded to pieces, the ship eventually sank. La Salle was certain that the captain and his men committed mutiny, sank the ship and absconded with all the furs.. Also reported ashore on Twin River Point . FOR MORE DOOR COUNTY NEWS: Check out our homepage. #1. This video by Steve and Kathie Libert is from the location where they found the wreckage from the Le Griffon. 1,517 people lost their lives. More than 14,400 migrants have arrived in Italy by boat this year so far, compared to 5,470 in the same period last . In 1679, La Salle ordered his ship built in the wilderness above the great falls, launchingLe Griffon five months later in early May. Courtesy Steve Libert "Probably 99 percent of that . Bennett is the author of: 1) Deep Quest The Entry 2) The Sunken Treasure of Poverty Island 3) Island of Bones and the award recipient of: . The PADI DIVING Excellence Award 1994 The best part are the flow charts, five pages with arrows pointing to what may have happened next. There are many new facts that appear to support the legend. What say you, Mate. imagine a case of whitworth rifles, ahhhh. When we started it was dead-reckoning each time we went out. The director, Michael Palazzolo, arrived and scouted out the county for filming locations. Often considered the first ship lost on the Great Lakes, little was known about it until shipwreck hunters Stevie and Kathie Libert set to work. The wooden and steel vessels didnt sink, they floated onto the rocks, were smashed to pieces, and distributed by currents and waves all around the bays half under water until they became waterlogged and sunk. "I'm an independent historian, and I thought our patrons would be interested," said Stozicki, who is president of the Rochester-Avon Historical Society. "It started with a junior high teacher, talking about early European explorers. Marty Lagina and Matty Blake return to the eerie . The team makes an astonishing discovery in the investigation of not just one but two shipwrecks. I have read the above comments and hope to provide you a feature movie someday. Another skeptic is Corey Adkins, communications content director for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. The discipline it takes to write a screenplay is daunting at best. The SS Ira H. Owen was a Great Lakes freighter that sank near Outer Island in the Apostle Islands, Lake Superior, in the Mataafa Storm on 28 November 1905.She was loaded with 116,000 bushels of barley which was considered a "light load". More info. On June 16, 2013, U.S. and French archeologists began examining an underwater object first discovered in 2001 near Poverty Island that could be the wreck of Le Griffon, although it will take time to determine if it is even a shipwreck.Le Griffon was the first full-sized European style sailing ship on the upper Great Lakes that was built and commanded by the French explorer Ren . Submarines- Got one too hard to deploy and recover in rough water. Sailors in the 20s almost had the chests. One day, Karl would claim that he had seen a salvage ship out in the water, allegedly excitedly working on dredging something up from the depths, after which the crews could be heard loudly rejoicing, but a storm would come in and sink the ship to send them and whatever they had found back to the bottom. Mr Libert will continue to search the bed of Lake Michigan using non-intrusive techniques, with the ultimate aim of finding a cannon with the date stamped on it. Biology, nature, and cryptozoology still remain Brent Swancers first intellectual loves. Beacons in the Night, Michigan Lighthouse Chronology, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University. From then on, Steve's obsession grew. He had dreams of becoming a basketball star on the very street he just visited. Background: In 1863, as the tide of the Civil War was turning in favor for the Union, the Confederate States of America appealed to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte III for a secret shipment of gold to bolster their economy. The story seems consistent, there were witnesses, and maybe it was real, but in the end,it is really just alegend. The town has been Libert's year-round home since his retirement two years ago, and sits 70 miles across Lake Michigan from Poverty Island. Be very careful of rock ledges and shoals on the south and east entrance of Jackson Harbor; stay between the red and green markers. The production of cotton made the Confederacy's success of prime importance to the French leader. La Salle named the shipLe Griffon, after the mythical creature whose body of a lion has the head and wings of an eagle. For students of history, of any age, the Liberts' book is a good example of using primary source documents old maps and woodcuts from centuries-old books; records left by Jesuit missionaries, who traveled through the area of the Griffon's last sightings in 1670-1672; and thediaries of expedition leader Robert Cavelier de la Salle and of the exploring party's missionary priest, Father LouisHennepin. Le Griffon was the first full-sized European style sailing ship on the upper Great Lakes that was built and commanded by the French explorer Ren-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1679.