Plans move forward on $4.9 million work at Great Lakes Museum

DETROIT (AP) — Plans are moving forward on $4.9 million in improvements at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Detroit’s Belle Isle.

The Detroit Historical Society held a groundbreaking Monday on the first $1.5 million part of the four-phase outdoor enhancement project.

The first phase is to be completed by November. Outdoor maritime artifact displays will be upgraded and the anchor from the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in 1975 and was immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot’s song, will be highlighted in a Lost Mariners Memorial.

Other phases are expected to be completed by 2021, including a riverfront trail and a landscape that would approximate the natural setting of Belle Isle before it became a park. The Historical Society has raised $1.9 million and seeks support for the rest of the project.