Fifty years later, author separates Edmund Fitzgerald fact from folklore

The Edmund Fitzgerald on calmer waters. Monday is the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the cargo ship in 1975 during a storm on Lake Superior, made famous by Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad. (Courtesy of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, via Wisconsin Public Radio)

Documentarian Ric Mixter, who has written extensively on the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. (Photo courtesy of Mixter, via Wisconsin Public Radio)

The Edmund Fitzgerald on calmer waters. Monday is the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the cargo ship in 1975 during a storm on Lake Superior, made famous by Gordon Lightfoot's ballad. (Courtesy of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, via Wisconsin Public Radio)

Monday is the 50th anniversary of one of the most tragic and well-known shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, th