WHITEFISH POINT — One of the most well-known moments in the years following the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, came in July of 1995 when divers raised the ship’s bell to create a permanent memorial at Whitefish Point, to honor the ship and her crew.
Ed Garsten was the CNN reporter who covered the bell raising 30 years ago.
“I thought that was the coolest story that we could possibly cover,” recalled Garsten.
In July of 1995, Ed Garsten found himself on a boat in the middle of Lake Superior as the Detroit bureau chief for CNN.
Divers were about to do something extraordinary; raise the bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald, nearly 20 years after her sinking.
“They said, well, we’re here. The mood changed in a in a snap. I mean, we were just from this bouncy ride in the Four Winns and we going, oh, we’re off on an adventure. This is cool to complete quiet, to complete feeling of reverence, to know that you were really above, what people would say to be a graveyard,” said Garsten.
Ed watched from a distance as the bell was raised to a ship carrying family members of the 29 men lost when the ship went down.
“I can tell you, there were no smiles or a feeling of it’s about time. What it was, I would say the best way I could describe it was a deferred funeral. It was that type of reverent feeling and the type of feeling you would have at a funeral for your loved one. Only it was much deferred, where they could finally, in their own mind, say some sort of goodbye to their loved one and have some closure at the same time,” explained Ed.
“That’s how much the bell represented, because it came from the ship where their loved ones perished and were buried, below the surface,” said Ed.
And more than 30 years after the raising, Ed says the story remains the highlight of his reporting career.
“I’ve done thousands and thousands of stories over the 50 year career. This is this is number one by far. By far, one because it was a unique opportunity to it had to do with, a very, famous, or infamous occurrence. And you just know, you’ll never have an opportunity to do anything like this again. It’s a very unique story,” said Ed.