Daniel Lyons Maritime Trails Marker
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Daniel Lyons Maritime Trails Marker
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Daniel Lyons Maritime Trails Marker at Algoma Municipal Marina
 
Details
Attraction
Location
Body of Water: Lake Michigan
Trail Name: Mid Lake Michigan
Year Built: 2007
Nearest Address: Algoma Municipal Marina
Nearest City: Algoma
County: Kewaunee
Zip Code: 54216
Latitude: N 44°36.458'
Longitude: W -87°25.923'
Attraction
Features
Open to public?: Yes
Mooring buoy?: No
Mooring buoy in place?: No
Snorkelable?: No
Dive guide?: No
Trails sign?: Yes
National Register?: No
Attraction
Description
About 8 miles northeast of here, the old wooden schooner Daniel Lyons rests 110 feet beneath Lake Michigan's waves. The three-masted Daniel Lyons delivered grain to ports around the Great Lakes in the 1870s, until a collision sent her to the bottom the night of Oct. 17, 1878. That night, the Daniel Lyons departed Chicago at one a.m, loaded with wheat and bound for Buffalo, New York. She made her way up the Wisconsin coastline easily in the light fall breeze, until she was offshore from Clay Banks in Door County. About four a.m., the red and green lights of another vessel appeared in the darkness. It was the Kate Gillett, heavily laden with fence posts and bound for Chicago. The ships tried to avoid one another, but the Kate Gillett rammed the starboard side of the Lyons, piercing her hull. The two vessels remained locked together long enough for the captain and crew of the Daniel Lyons to jump aboard the Gillett. When the ships separated, the Daniel Lyons quickly sank. Today, the Daniel Lyons hull has collapsed. Masts, gaffs, booms, wire rope and other rigging are strewn about the wreck site, and divers can examine deck winches and a windlass. The site is marked seasonally by a Wisconsin Historical Society mooring buoy.
 
Map
 
Nearby
Attractions (4)
Alaska Pier
Algoma North Pierhead Light
Daniel Lyons Buoy
Daniel Lyons Maritime Trails Marker
Shipwrecks (9)
Almira (1849)
Charlotte (1853)
Daisy (1876)
Daniel Lyons (1873)
John Evenson (1884)
Lady Ellen (1875)
Sea Bird (1857)
Trinidad (1867)
W.L. Baker (1883)
Shipwrecks (9)
Almira (1849)
Charlotte (1853)
Daisy (1876)
Daniel Lyons (1873)
John Evenson (1884)
Lady Ellen (1875)
Sea Bird (1857)
Trinidad (1867)
W.L. Baker (1883)
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© 2026 - Wisconsin Sea Grant, Wisconsin Historical Society