Detroit, MI
Edmund Fitzgerald life ring to be auctioned in Detroit this month
A life ring from the Edmund Fitzgerald, the famous Great Lakes freighter that was shipwrecked 50 years ago, will be auctioned in Detroit this month.
The orange life ring washed onto the Lake Superior shore after the Fitzgerald sank off the coast of Whitefish Bay on Nov. 10, 1975.
Larry Orr, who was 27 at the time, found it leaning against a tree alongside a plank from one of the Fitzgerald’s lifeboats, according to DuMouchelles, the auction house coordinating the sale. Both the life ring and plank likely came from one of the Fitzgerald’s lifeboats.
Orr took the ring and plank. Ten years later, he loaned them to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in the Upper Peninsula’s Chippewa County. He decided this year to sell the ring, DuMouchelles President Joe Walker said.
Walker said the life ring is unlike anything the auction house has sold before. It’s an artifact from arguably one of the most famous shipwrecks in the world and the most famous to take place on the Great Lakes. He said he hopes it is purchased by a museum.
“It’s just a piece of Great Lakes history,” he said.
The life ring has a history of its own. It was featured in a lawsuit Orr filed against the state in which he accused a state police officer of violating his rights during a sexual assault investigation, the Associated Press reported last month. The state had initially asked for the life ring as part of a settlement deal in which the state would give Orr $600,000. After the AP called MSP spokeswoman Shanon Banner, the life ring was removed from the deal.
The unusual almost-arrangement shows the resiliency of the Edmund Fitzgerald’s legacy in Michigan.
The ship was built at Great Lakes Engineering Works at a shipyard on the border of Ecorse and River Rouge. Thousands of people crowded around the dock to watch it launch into the Detroit River in 1958. At the time, it was the largest freighter on the lakes. It remained a notable ship until its famous end in Lake Superior.
Other artifacts from the Edmund Fitzgerald are scattered across the Great Lakes. One of the ship’s anchors, which it lost in the Detroit River before it wrecked, is outside the Detroit Historical Society’s Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Detroit’s Belle Isle park. A life raft and oars are on display at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo.
Selling an artifact from the Fitzgerald is a rare and emotional process, Walker said. DuMouchelles is on East Jefferson Avenue near Mariners Church, so Walker grew up listening to the bells toll each November to honor the 29 men who died on the Fitzgerald and the thousands of other mariners who have died on the Great Lakes.
DuMouchelle’s wouldn’t have auctioned the ring if it had been removed from the wreck site, Walker said, but the ring was legally acquired and Orr is selling out of financial necessity.
“It’s a mixed bag for us, emotionally, to be honest with you,” Walker said. “A lot of what we do is (for) people experiencing emotional, physical, economic hardship, right? And this is one of those cases.”
The life ring will be on display for public viewing at DuMouchelles on East Jefferson Avenue on Dec. 12, 13, 16 and 17. The auction is scheduled for Dec. 19. The starting bid is $11,250.
ckthompson@detroitnews.com
Detroit, MI
Police search for suspect, accomplice after teen injured in shooting outside Detroit school gym
The Detroit Police Department is searching for a suspect and an accomplice in connection with a shooting last week that injured a teen outside a school gym.
The shooting happened in the 3400 block of St. Aubin, the same area where the Detroit Edison Public School Academy’s Early College of Excellence is located. Police say that at about 8:27 p.m. on Feb. 27, there was an altercation inside the gym that continued outside.
Police say the suspect allegedly fired multiple shots at the victim, striking him. The teen was taken to a hospital for treatment. His current condition is unknown.
Police say the accomplice who was with the suspect was also armed.
Anyone with information is asked to call DPD’s seventh precinct at 313-596-5740, Crime Stoppers at 800-Speak Up or DetroitRewards.tv.
Detroit, MI
Bruce Campbell announces cancer diagnosis; ‘Fear not,’ he tells fans
Treatment will delay the Royal Oak-born actor’s plans to tour his new film ‘Ernie & Emma’ this summer.
Royal Oak-born movie star and cult hero Bruce Campbell announced on social media on Monday that he has been diagnosed cancer — a type that is “treatable” but not “curable,” he said.
“I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too,” the “Evil Dead” star, 67, wrote in a message posted to Instagram.
He went on to say “I’m not gonna go into any more detail,” and he didn’t. He said the public announcement had to do with scaling back appearances on his schedule, including tour dates behind his latest film, “Ernie & Emma.”
Campbell planned to show the movie June 5 at the Redford Theatre; as of Monday night, that date is still on the Redford schedule, but Campbell wrote in his note he plans to get “as well as I possibly can over the summer so that I can tour with my new movie ‘Ernie & Emma’ this fall.”
The movie is written, directed by and stars Campbell as a man who goes on a journey following the death of his wife. Campbell produced the movie alongside his wife, Ida Gearon, and filmed it in Oregon, where he now lives.
Campbell told The News in January he dedicated “Ernie & Emma” to his childhood moviemaking pals, including Scott Spiegel, who died of a heart attack in September 2025.
“It’s a callback to the carefree days of Super 8, where we could do whatever the f–k we wanted to do,” Campbell said of “Ernie & Emma.” “So I thought, ‘All the boys are responsible for this,’ so they’re all in there.”
Campbell got his start making movies around Metro Detroit with his childhood pal, Sam Raimi. Campbell starred in Raimi’s “Evil Dead” trilogy and has since appeared in most of Raimi’s films; Campbell makes a brief appearance in a photograph in the background of an early scene in Raimi’s latest, “Send Help.”
He’s also an author; Campbell’s autobiography “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor” was published in 2001.
In his post on social media, Campbell thanked fans and said he was not out to elicit sympathy.
“Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around for a while,” he wrote.
agraham@detroitnews.com
Detroit, MI
Michigan State Police sends message to drivers after trooper involved in hit and run:
“Slow down and move over” is the message that Michigan State Police is sending to drivers after one of its troopers in a parked patrol car was struck while investigating a crash this weekend. The driver of that vehicle fled the scene.
Michigan State Police tells CBS News Detroit that we’re two months into the year, and it has had six incidents across the state where patrol cars were struck by oncoming vehicles. One of those incidents occurred on Sunday evening.
“Could have been much more tragic,” said MSP Lieutenant Rene Gonzalez, First District public information officer.
Gonzalez says on Sunday, an MSP trooper was near M-10 and Schaefer Highway in Detroit, simply doing his job, when his patrol car was hit from behind.
“Trooper was out there, and he was investigating a crash when, at the time, a Jeep SUV drove into the rear of the parked vehicle,” Gonzalez said.
The impact slid the trooper’s car into a concrete wall. The 29-year-old Detroit woman driving the Jeep SUV struck the center median, got out of the vehicle, and ran away.
“Not sure why they did it. Maybe not paying attention if they were distracted. They’re attempting to locate her at this time,” said Lt. Gonzalez.
The trooper walked away with minor injuries. Gonzalez says this incident is an example of why Michigan’s Move Over Law was put in place many years ago. The law, which went into effect in 2019, requires drivers to move over into the next lane and reduce their speed by at least 10 mph when emergency or service vehicles — police, fire, rescue, ambulance and road service — have their lights activated.
Drivers who are not able to move over are still required to reduce their speed.
“Trying to do our jobs, however, people are not paying attention. The law is easy. It’s simple. You see us, you see our lights activated, you have to slow down ten miles below the posted speed limit, and then if able, move over to the next occupied available lane,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez says crashes like this can be deadly and often avoided.
“One life lost over something that was a totally preventable crash, it’s way too much. We’re asking that you slow down and move over when you see our lights. It’s a simple message that we’ve been pushing out for years,” he said.
Sunday’s crash remains under investigation. Michigan State Police detectives are still working to track down the 29-year-old suspect.
In the meantime, police are out enforcing the Move Over Law.
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