As a Great Lake state, Ohio has 312 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie. It is estimated that over 2,000 ships have been lost in Lake Erie; with nearly 600 believed to be in Ohio waters.
The Ohio Shipwreck Inventory (OSI) was formally established in 2004 with the goal to document Ohio's maritime heritage and provide a detailed inventory of all abandoned shipwrecks older than fifty years that exist under the jurisdiction of the State of Ohio.
Though there is a great emphasis on recording shipwrecks present within Lake Erie, all abandoned vessels found in Ohio qualify to be listed onto the OSI.
The OSI is maintained by the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and currently records almost 100 of Ohio's shipwrecks.
To access previously inventoried OSI site forms and related survey reports, please Request SHPO Records.
If a previously inventoried shipwreck form requires updates, please contact the Archaeology Survey & Data Manager to determine the required method.
In 1992, the Ohio Shipwreck Law was passed by the Legislature of the State of Ohio. This law, in summary, states the management of certain submerged property under the Ohio waters of Lake Erie to which the State of Ohio holds title in trust for all the people of the state. This trust property (referred to as Property) is any part of a sunken ship or aircraft (if the owners or insurers are not still trying to reclaim them); anything from the ship or aircraft; and American Indian artifacts. The law does three separate but related things:
Generally, this law does not affect recreational diving. Divers may dive and observe anywhere in the lake. The mantra, "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but bubbles" applies here. Do not remove from the water, alter, or destroy Property submerged under Ohio Lake Erie waters.
Anyone who recovers Property in violation of this law is subject to fines and possible confiscation of diving equipment. You can preserve the maritime heritage of Lake Erie by reporting violations of the law to your state or local enforcement agencies.
A diver cannot recover Property without a Salvage Permit obtained by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The only exception is if the Property is not on or near a sunken watercraft or aircraft and if the Property is recoverable by hand without mechanical or other assistance such as a lift bag. If such Property is more than 30 years old and is valued at more than $10, the diver must file a report with the Ohio History Connection no later than 30 days after the recovery.
The law provides the establishment of underwater preserves to protect Property and underwater features of the lake that have special value.
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Inclusion in the OSI does not automatically register or nominate a property to the National Register of Historic Places. Sites listed to the OSI helps alert the preservation community, and local and state officials of the presence of Potentially Eligible sites.
For more information on the nomination process, visit our National Register of Historic Places page.
In 1987, the United States Congress adopted the Abandoned Shipwreck Act. This Act declared that the United States holds title to all abandoned shipwrecks within US territorial waters. More specifically, it conferred title of such wrecks to the states in which they are located. This left individual states to enact laws to manage their underwater resources.
As a result of the passage of the National Abandoned Shipwreck Act, the Legislature of Ohio passed the Ohio Shipwreck Law (ORC 1506.36) in 1992. As part of this law, a governor appointed committee named the Submerged Lands Advisory Council (SLAC) was established. The function of SLAC was to serve as an advising body to the Ohio History Connection and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) in matters relating to Ohio's shipwrecks.
The Council was represented by various lake user groups who advocated for shipwreck education and protection in the State of Ohio for over a decade. SLAC was eventually sunset by the State of Ohio in 2004 with a portion of its duties merged with the Coastal Resources Advisory Council within the Office of Coastal Management, installed within ODNR (OCR 1506.12).
In the late 1990s, a crew of underwater archaeology students began to formalize their identity and coined the moniker Maritime Archaeological Survey Team (MAST). SLAC formally supported the venture and the Peachman Lake Erie Shipwreck Research Center of the Great Lakes Historical Society (PLESRC) offered to serve as MAST's home base, allowing the coordination of workshops. As the dissolution of SLAC occurred, MAST began intensifying its focus on educating the public and protecting shipwrecks through documentation efforts.
The Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE) was founded in 2001 with a focus on research, underwater archaeological exploration and surveying.
In 1996 the Ohio History Connection received a grant from the National Park Service to create a shipwreck database for Lake Erie, named SHIIPS. This database became the basis for the vessel databases maintained by Bowling Green State University and PLESRC.
As a result, the OSI entry form began to take shape in the early 2000s as a collaborative effort between the Ohio SHPO and Curator of Archaeology, Linda Pansing. Since the implementation of the OSI, nearly 100 shipwrecks have been inventoried. The most notable entry is the Paddle Steamer Anthony Wayne (NR Reference No. 100001932; OSI No. 33ER0556), currently the only Ohio Shipwreck listed on the National Register of Historic Places.