It has been 49 years since the cargo freighter the SS Edmund Fitzgerald was dragged down by the waves of Lake Superior. It is a tale made famous by a ballad created by Canadian musician Gordon Lightfoot, and one I, along with most Yoopers, grew up listening to.

At Northern Michigan University around this time of the year us locals do our best to honor the 29 men and the largest ship to go down in the Great lakes. Most of the tributes include, at the very least, listening to the Lightfoot’s song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” though the braver (and of legal drinking age) tend to down a beer or shot for each soul lost on that stormy November night. Those who come to the university out of state, and even from downstate, often don’t get why it is such a big deal. I’ll do my best to explain it.

As a child growing up in the U.P., I was raised around water, around Lake Superior. I was always told of its cold fury, like how she boasts rip currents that could pull you miles from shore in minutes. If you died in lake, your body would stay preserved. It was a quarter mile deep, and it never warms, among other pieces of lore. As a child, I learned the lake was something to be revered and feared.

I also grew up in Ishpeming, a once great mining town with stories of train tracks built on top of buildings and movies filmed in the town. Many mines encircling the land, with brave miners dangerously digging beneath our feet. Then, in Marquette, you could see the Ore Docks as proof.

The Edmund Fitzgerald is a blend of these two types of tales: the history of mining and the lore of Lake Superior. With the freighters that are loaded up in Marquette, the might of the freighters is easily seen, and the horror of one snapping under Lake Superior is baffling, but not surprising.  Pair all of that with a truly amazing ballad, and you have the makings of a local tradition and many local legends.