Is this the Griffon?

Teaming with Chicago’s Field Museum

In the summer of 2001, Steve Libert located an anomaly on the lake floor. At first he believed the protruding object to be a ship’s mast, but believes now it is more likely to be the bowsprit. The preliminary studies that Libert and archaeologist Dr. Scott Demel, Ph.D, of Chicago’s Field Museum, have since conducted are suggestive.

First, the object, thought to be a bowsprit, is clearly hand hewn. Dr. Demel notes that the bowsprit’s construction is fairly crude. It lacks any metal, which makes it consistent with having been constructed in the wilderness as opposed to a shipyard, as the Griffon was.

Second, the location where Libert found the wreck is consistent with the research of the late Dr. George Quimby, archaeologist and Field Museum curator in the mid-twentieth century. It’s also consistent with Father Hennepin’s description of the favorable winds the Griffon set sail from when it left the Island of the Potawatomi.

Finally, initial C-14 carbon dating performed by Beta Analytic Laboratories of Miami, FL and the University of Arizona are promising, though not conclusive. “Unfortunately, dates in this period using this technique are somewhat ambiguous,” Dr. Demel says cautiously. “However, the data from the C-14 dates doesn’t preclude the possibility that what may be a bowsprit is of sufficient age to be the Griffon.”

Even if the wreck turns out not to be the Griffon, Dr. Demel believes the ship will still be a very noteworthy archaeological find. There are thousands of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, few of which have ever been recovered. Further, the evident age of the vessel Libert has located will add to our store of knowledge of a critical time in our nation’s history.