There’s something special about landmark anniversaries and the media coverage that they attract.

We’ll have one such event on Monday. It’s the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the Great Lakes freighter Edmund Fitzgerald. It sank to the bottom of Lake Superior in a fierce storm that produced massive waves.

I remember hearing talk of the shipwreck as a child. It put the Great Lakes in the spotlight. Even out on the prairie on the opposite side of Minnesota, people were very interested.

It was the biggest shipwreck since the Titanic went down in 1912. History is filled with stories of shipwrecks large and small. They occurred on rivers, lakes, coastlines and out on the open sea.

We’d become complacent by 1975, often thinking that major ship disasters were a thing of the past. The Edmund Fitzgerald was a surprise because of its record setting history. It was the first ship to haul more than a million tons of iron ore through the locks at Sault St. Marie.

Part of the fascination was that nobody was sure of the cause of the wreck. All evidence suggests that it was sudden. The last transmission from Captain Ernest McSorley was that the ship was holding its own.

The Coast Guard report identified the most likely cause as improperly closed hatchways which caused the vessel to rapidly take on water.

The famous 1976 ballad by Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot contains some differences. The most basic difference was that McSorley didn’t report water coming in or that the ship was in peril. No one knows exactly what happened since all 29 lives were lost.

The song says that the Edmund Fitzgerald had a crew and good captain well seasoned. Whatever caught it by surprise didn’t affect the Arthur Anderson, the freighter that was traveling behind it. The Arthur Anderson has hauled cargo for many years and has a Facebook link for fans.

I have a lighthouse collection and a deck of playing cards featuring well known Great Lakes ships, so I have a lasting interest in the mystery of “Big Fitz”.

Lightfoot has remained one of my favorite musicians over the years. I like his ballads. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is his most famous, but he’s had plenty of other good ones such as Sundown, Carefree Highway and Rainy Day People.

Whether or not journalists cover anniversaries depends on the event itself and how long it’s been since it took place. The 25th, 50th, 75th and 100th are very likely to attract attention.

Some events like the Kennedy assassination and 911 get covered at least every 10 years. That’s likely to continue in the future because of how much those kinds of events shaped history.

We’ll have a big year for anniversaries in 2026. It will be the 250th of the Declaration of Independence and the 25th of 911. The 40th of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion also deserves recognition.

Journalists can localize these events by asking people where they were when the heard the news and how they reacted. For something like the Declaration of Independence, they can ask about the current meaning. It’s one of the greatest achievements in world history.

Anniversaries are a good reminder that history shouldn’t be forgotten. Something like the Titanic or the Edmund Fitzgerald deserve a permanent place in everyone’s mind.

Even a pop culture comedy like Gilligan’s Island should be kept alive. I would buy a DVD collection of the show.

I always wondered who was really in charge of the island. Officially it was the Skipper, but the professor and Mr. Howell also had a lot to say. If they had ever had a Survivor competition, I think it would be won by someone low on the radar. The final three would have probably been Mrs. Howell, Mary Ann and Gilligan.

We shouldn’t forget famous literary classic related to shipwrecks or the sea. Two of the most notable examples are Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island. Everyone should own a copy of them.

People like adventure. They enjoy learning about the sea; as well as fur traders, pioneers, gunfighters, space travel and much more. All of them are sure to keep attracting interest.

— Jim Muchlinski is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent