For the first time, the annual Edmund Fitzgerald memorial ceremony at Split Rock Lighthouse has reached capacity in reservations.
“A record-breaking 2,000 in-person tickets have been purchased for the Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Beacon Lighting and commemoration ceremony at Split Rock Lighthouse,” according to a Monday news release from the Minnesota Historical Society. “Due to the high demand, the event is now sold out.”
Nick Jungheim, communications coordinator for the historical society, explained in an email to the Duluth News Tribune that “this is the first time the event has needed an attendance cap … in the past, the site has been able to accommodate the demand. According to folks at the site, this is by far the most we’ve done in presales for this event.”
This is a significant year, marking 50 years since the Fitzgerald foundered in a Lake Superior storm. Although Split Rock Lighthouse ceased operations six years before the loss of the Fitzgerald, and had no direct connection to the ship’s sinking near Whitefish Bay, as a Lake Superior landmark, the lighthouse remains associated with the Great Lakes’ best-known shipwreck.
The lighthouse first paid tribute to the Fitzgerald in 1985, after then-keeper Lee Radzak was inspired by Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” to honor the 29 men lost with the ship.
The Split Rock memorial is now one of the best-known annual events honoring the Fitzgerald crew, alongside similar ceremonies at venues including the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (custodian of the Fitzgerald’s bell) on Whitefish Point and the Mariners’ Church of Detroit. Each Nov. 10 ceremony is among the rare occasions on which the Split Rock beacon is lit.
While the 2025 event is sold out, it will be livestreamed for remote viewing.
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