The schooner Lookout was built at the shipyard of George Hardison, located on Buffalo Creek near the toll bridge in Buffalo, New York. George Hardison was one of the more prolific early master shipwrights on the Great Lakes. It was enrolled at the Customs House in the Port of Buffalo on September 1, 1855, with Buffalo listed as its homeport. The schooner was built for Henry A. Frink of Buffalo, who owned three quarters share in the vessel. Frink was a commercial barrel stave and lumber dealer whose warehouse was located at 22 Central Wharf in Buffalo. Lookout’s Master, Charles Morey of Ashtabula, Ohio, owned the remaining quarter share. Captain Morey was a career mariner on the Great Lakes. Throughout its almost 45 years-long career Lookout carried various cargoes, including grain, coal, and lumber on the Great Lakes.
Around 4 AM on 29 April 1897, while fighting their way north from Chicago to Masonville, now Little Bay de Noc, Michigan, without a cargo aboard in a northeast gale, Lookout came too close to Twin Rivers Point, now Rawley Point, and stranded 200 yards off the beach approximately five miles north of Two Rivers. The ship did not send up any distress signals.

Life Saving Service patrolman Gagnun discovered her, at around 5 o'clock in the morning, while he was making his surveillance rounds on the beach. Gagnun sprinted back to the station to sound the alarm. As he approached at 5:20am, surfman Gauthier, who was on lookout, spotted the patrolman running down the beach waving his arms and hat. Everyone at the station was woken up and readied for response. Since the storm served a fierce wind and high seas, it was impossible to row their surfboat to the scene.

At 6:10am, two teams of horses were acquired from Shultz’s Livery Barn to drive both their surfboat and beach apparatus to the stranded ship. The crew of Lookout watched the Life Savers slowing working their way up the beach. At 7:00am fearing Lookout was about to break up before the Life Saving Crew would get to them, Captain John Olson ordered his crew to abandon ship and take their chances in the yawl. The rescue team and their equipment arrived at the scene at 7:30am shortly after Lookout’s men came ashore. All seven of Lookout’s men got ashore safely. The shipwreck victims were walked back to the Life Saving Station in Two Rivers and given dry clothes from the Women’s National Relief Association, until their clothing could be dried.

The men departed the next day for Chicago. Captain Olson remained behind to save what he could of the ship. He visited the wreck the next day with the lighthouse keeper. They found the vessel under water, buried in "quicksand" up to her rails, with everything movable washed away. Captain Olson managed to save one anchor, seventy-five fathoms of chain, four jib sails, and three gaff top sails. The final document of enrollment was surrendered in Chicago on May 12, 1897, with the vessel listed as lost.
Today the wreck site of the schooner Lookout lies partially embedded in a bed of quicksand in 11 to 15 feet of water, 4.35 miles northeast of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, off Point Beach State Forest in Lake Michigan. The bow and most of the ship’s lower hull remains intact and protected in a very fine, gelatinous, soft sand. Near the stern, starting where the starboard side descends into sand, a hard, sandy bottom replaces the gelatinous sand and extends past the sternpost. The visible wreckage is well preserved, having recently been exposed. The stern and portside bow sections likely remain buried. Lookout’s deck machinery and rigging were salvaged shortly after the wrecking in 1897.