The Erie L. Hackley was a wooden steam screw vessel built in 1882 at the Boon Company Dock in Muskegon, Michigan by C.H. Hackley. The vessel was named in honor of his daughter.The Erie L. Hackley spent its early years carrying passengers and freight around the Muskegon area as part of the North Muskegon Ferry Line. In 1888 the ship was rebuilt including replacing the boilers. In 1898 the vessel was moved northward to carry mail and passengers between Charlevoix, Michigan and Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. In order to make the vessel more seaworthy on the open waters, the Erie L. Hackley was rebuilt with high forward bulwarks and a raised pilothouse. The Hackley sailed the Manitou Islands route for the 1902 season. In 1903, the newly formed Fish Creek transportation Company purchased the Erie L. Hackley to serve its Green Bay route.
On October 3,1903, the Erie L. Hackley departed Menominee, Michigan around 5:45 p.m., with nineteen people aboard, bound across the bay for Egg Harbor on the Door County Peninsula. About an hour later, a violent squall arose, whipping the waves to monstrous heights. Soon, great walls of water crashed onto the vessel, tearing the pilothouse and cabin from the hull. The waves swept the passengers and crew overboard before they could grab life preservers. The Erie L. Hackley sank in five minutes, leaving a trail of people and debris floating in the seething waters. Several castaways managed to climb aboard the floating cabin. They remained there through the night, occasionally being swept into the raging seas. The following morning, they were spotted by the passing steamer Sheboygan. The steamer's crew picked them up and found several others in the surrounding waters. They clothed and fed the survivors before transferring them to a passing fishing boat bound for Fish Creek, Wisconsin. Only eight of the nineteen people aboard survived.
The Erie L.Hackley was discovered in Green Bay 2 miles northeast of Green Island in late 1979. The M/V Southern Marine was crossing Green Bay from Egg Harbor to Menominee and had left the the scanning sonar operating even though no formal survey was underway. In the vicinity where the Erie L. Hackley was known to be lost the sonar registered a target. The following Memorial Day weekend, using sonar the wreck of the Hackley was rediscovered by divers who were searching for the lost vessel.

Frank Hoffman from the Mystery Ship Seaport and other divers explored and systematically salvaged the wreck. In late 1981, Hoffmann's crew then decided to attempt to raise the wreck. Plans were to display the Hackley along with the Alvin Clark at the Mystery Ship Seaport Museum at Menominee. During August and September, cables were dredged under the hull and made ready for the lift. Normally before raising a wreck, most of the mud enveloping the hull is jetted away to reduce suction. Due to the deteriorating fall weather, the raising of the Hackley was attempted without the massive mud jetting. The suction of the mud refused to release the ship and the cables pulled free bringing only the ship's rudder and a 38 foot section of rail to the surface. In the process of raising, Hoffman had disinterred two of the crewmembers from the bottom of Green Bay and they were reburied at Bayside Cemetery in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Today, the wreck of the Erie L. Hackley sits upright in 110 feet of water on the bottom of Green Bay. The wreck is mostly intact with its engine, boiler, the cargo of red bricks, some decking as well as its sides and bow. The stern has been damaged.