The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is likely one of the most requested topics for already gone.

I've wanted to cover it, but because this tragedy has such a profound effect on me,

I turn to a researcher and writer to put this one together,

and I think Gemma Harris did a beautiful job.

I asked Chesare, my audio guide,

take another listen to the Gordon Lightfoot classic and find me a few,

poignant notes to punctuate the story.

If you aren't familiar with the song after you listen to the episode, please check it out.

Gordon Lightfoot is an amazing talent and did something truly magical with this sad page of history.

Now in his 80s, Lightfoot is still touring, perhaps he's doing a show in your town.

And listeners, in order to discuss the tragedy, we have to go back, back to the beginning.

So come with me for a history of the lake and a stop in the late 1950s when the mining companies and their investors decided to build a ship on a grand scale to transport iron ore through the Great Lakes.

The Northern Shore of Michigan's Upper Peninsula is bordered by Lake Superior.

As Lake Superior is roughly the size of the state of South Carolina, the name is fitting.

It is the world's largest freshwater lake, not only by surface area, but in water volume, measuring 2900 cubic miles.

At 160 miles wide and 350 miles long, Lake Superior is also the biggest of the Great Lakes, holding more water than all four of her neighboring lakes combined.

Superior is also home to Michigan's only national park, Isle Royale, an archipelago of more than 200 islands.

Just north of Isle Royale, the US Canadian border runs northwest to Southeast through the lake.

Geographically splitting it roughly in half, the lake's surface covers 31,700 square miles,

and Superior reaches a depth of 1,332 feet.

Her shoreline measures 2,726 miles and runs from Northern Michigan along the northern edge of Wisconsin, up to Ontario and then west to Minnesota.

Don't let her appearance on a map fool you. Superior is an inland sea.

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