Speakers & PresentationsValerie van Heest
An
inductee in the Women Divers Ha
ll of fame, award-winning author, and
regular guest speaker, Valerie has explored and documented shipwrecks
for over twenty years and her efforts recently led to an award from the
Historical Society of Michigan for excellence in preserving and
promoting Michigan’s maritime heritage. Not only has her work been
featured in many books, but she writes articles, produces documentary
films, designs museum exhibits, and has appeared on an episode of
History Channel exploring a Chicago shipwreck. Valerie serves as
director of the non-profit, Michigan
Shipwreck Research Associates and spearheads the team’s search for
ships lost off our shores. She is the author of two books, both winners
of Michigan State History Awards: Icebound! The Adventures of
Young George Sheldon and the SS Michigan, and Buckets and
Belts: Evolution of the Great Lakes Self-Unloader, co-written
with historian William Lafferty. Her latest book, Lost on the Lady Elgin just came out on the 150th anniversary of the sinking of that vessel. Valerie's web site is valerievanheest.com
Lost on the Lady Elgin
When her hand touched
the wood stock of a musket laying in a field of debris on the bottom of
Lake Michigan, all that remains of the once palatial sidewheel steamer
Lady Elgin, named after the wife of Canada's Governor General, it ignited a passion for the study of the tragic
circumstances of her sinking in 1860, which resulted in the deaths of over 300 people. Now, 150 years after the disaster, Valerie Van Heest, an award-winning author and member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame, brings
the audience back in time….
...To the golden age of passenger travel on the Great Lakes… to the eve of a presidential election… to the brink of Civil War facing a young nation... and... to a dark, stormy night when 400 excursionists on board the Lady Elgin were awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a terrible crash.
Within just a few hours, most of them would perish in what became the deadliest disaster on the open waters of the Great Lakes.
More than a century later, the discovery of the wreck and recovery of a treasure would ignite a legal battle that would mark a legal decision affecting all Great lakes divers and explorers.