The Plymouth is often forgotten as one of the three elusive victims of the Gale of 1913, mostly because several divers took credit for finding the wreck near Poverty Island. This Saturday Ric Mixter will show us why it's impossible that the wreckage described is the remains of the barge- and why wreck hunters should still be searching for this famous boat.
Ric Mixter is one of the region’s busiest maritime history speakers, making dozens of appearances in two countries and three states last year alone. As multimedia producer at Great Lakes Now, Ric researches, writes and directs segments for the monthly TV show and develops digital content for the website focusing on historical and cultural stories and issues. He draws on his background as a shipwreck researcher, diving over 100 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes.
Ric has served as SCUBA cameraman on underwater expeditions to the Great Lakes largest shipwrecks including the Edmund Fitzgerald and Carl D. Bradley. He has interviewed dozens of shipwreck survivors over the past 15 years including two from the 1913 Storm, two from the 1940 Armistice Day Storm and survivors from the largest shipwrecks in lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie. He’s Emmy-nominated and has earned several awards from the Addy, Aurora, Michigan Association of Broadcasters, Associated Press, and United Press International.
With over 20 years of stories on historical preservation, Ric was awarded the 2009 Award for Historic Interpretation by the Association for Great Lakes Maritime Historians, and 2011 was elected to the organization’s board of directors. Ric was also on the board of directors for the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association, elected to serve as their president starting in January 2016. Mixter is also a board member of the prestigious Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, which manages the museum at Whitefish Point. Ric has hosted the largest dive show in Ontario and also served as master of ceremonies for the Midwest’s largest show in Chicago. He is a frequent speaker at Ghost Ships in Milwaukee and Michigan’s largest show “Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival” held annually at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor.
Visiting museums, libraries, schools and with his live music concert “STORM”, thousands of audience members get a new appreciation for our unique inland-sea history through his spellbinding lectures. He has produced over 30 programs for PBS and the Outdoor Channel and appeared as a shipwreck expert on the History and Discovery Channels. His stories appear in books, podcasts, magazines and in radio and TV news programs. Mixter’s YouTube videos have over a million views, covering shipwrecks in four of the Great Lakes and adventures in several foreign lands.
