Paul Ehorn, shipwreck hunter, on finding luxury steamer 150 after sinking: “It was a moment of real jubilation”
A ship that was lost for over a century and a man who spent six decades looking for it, were finally able to put questions to bed about its location.
More than 150 years after a luxury passenger steamer vanished beneath the waves of Lake Michigan, veteran shipwreck hunter Paul Ehorn finally saw the outline he had spent decades searching for.
“It was a moment of real jubilation,” Ehorn said after confirming the discovery. “We knew we had done it.”
For Ehorn, now 80 years old, the find was much more than just another notch in a long career. It was the resolution of a mystery he first began chasing in 1965.
The tragic sinking of the Lac La Belle
The vessel, the Lac La Belle, sank during a violent storm on October 13, 1872.
Originally built in Cleveland in 1864, the steamer had already lived multiple lives. It was constructed as a luxury vessel, then raised once after an earlier sinking, and later converted into a passenger ship. On that ill-fated October voyage, she departed Milwaukee bound for Grand Haven, Michigan, carrying 53 passengers and crew.
Her cargo hold was packed with 19,000 bushels of barley, 1,200 barrels of flour, 50 barrels of pork and 25 barrels of whiskey, a floating symbol of Great Lakes commerce in the 19th century.
Just two hours into the journey, the ship began leaking. The captain turned back, but worsening weather and towering waves extinguished the boilers. With no power and little hope, the vessel was evacuated.
By dawn, the ship slipped beneath the surface of Lake Michigan as survivors watched from lifeboats. Tragically, one lifeboat capsized during the return to shore, killing eight people. For more than a century, the exact resting place of the wreck remained unknown.
The clue that changed everything
Ehorn had been searching for the wreck for nearly 60 years when a breakthrough came in 2022. A fellow shipwreck hunter provided a key clue that narrowed the search area significantly. Using sonar equipment, Ehorn scanned the lakebed and within just two hours, the unmistakable shape appeared.
HISTORIC FIND⚓️: Take a look at these photos! One of Lake Michigan’s most sought-after missing ships, the Lac La Belle, has finally been found. The steamer vanished into the depths of the lake during a stormy night in October 1872, and nearly 150 years later, Paul Ehorn located… pic.twitter.com/G3GviajCkx
— FOX Weather (@foxweather) February 17, 2026
“It’s kind of a game, like solving a puzzle,” he explained. “Sometimes you don’t have many pieces to put together. But this one worked out, and we found it right away.”
Sonar images revealed the ship’s hull largely intact on the lake floor, though the upper cabins had been torn away by the storm that sank her.
Divers later confirmed what sonar suggested. While the superstructure was gone, the wooden framing of the hull was still clearly visible. Parts of the cargo remain scattered around the wreck site and one propeller is missing. The stern sits quietly in the dark waters, preserved by the cold, fresh environment of Lake Michigan.
The discovery marks the 15th shipwreck found by Ehorn during his career. But this one, by his own admission, hit differently.
“It was one more to put a check mark by,” he said. “Now it’s on to the next one. It’s getting harder and harder. The easier ones have been found.”
Ehorn now plans to create a detailed 3D model of the wreck and present his findings at the 2026 Ghost Ships Festival in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
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