The Ghost Ship of the Great Lakes: The Tale of Le Griffon

The Ghost Ship of the Great Lakes: The Tale of Le Griffon

Long before ghost stories haunted Lake Erie or lighthouses stood sentry along Lake Michigan, a ship called Le Griffon carved its name into the icy waters—and into legend.

Built in 1679 by the bold (and slightly stubborn) French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, Le Griffon was the first full-sized European ship to sail the upper Great Lakes. And it wasn’t just any old boat. This was a 40-ton, cannon-armed barque with a figurehead of a mythological griffin—part lion, part eagle—symbolizing strength, vision, and, maybe, just a little French flair.

La Salle had dreams of empire. He wasn’t content with fur trading in canoes—he wanted galleons on freshwater. So, he picked a wild site near modern-day Niagara Falls and Cayuga Creek, dragged supplies through wilderness, and oversaw the ship’s construction with a crew that may or may not have thought he was nuts.

On August 7, 1679, Le Griffon was launched with full ceremony (and probably some wine). She sailed up the Niagara River, rounded Grand Island, and into uncharted waters. She crossed Lake Erie, sliced through Lake Huron, and reached Green Bay on Lake Michigan. La Salle, ever the entrepreneur, loaded her with 12,000 pounds of furs and sent her back to Niagara.

She never arrived.

No distress call. No wreckage. No bodies. Just gone.

Cue the legends.

Was she sunk in a storm? Attacked by rival traders? Sabotaged by her own crew? Or—as some whispered—cursed by the native spirits of the lakes, who didn’t take kindly to cannon-bearing wooden beasts sailing their waters?

Over the centuries, Le Griffon became the Holy Grail of shipwreck hunters. Explorers have searched every bay, dive site, and sunken timber pile from Wisconsin to Ontario. A few say they’ve found her—but none can prove it.

And yet, every now and then, a strange shape is seen beneath the waves. A carved griffin’s head, a ghostly mast, a whisper of cannon fire on the wind.

Was it real? Oh, yes.

Is it still out there?

Ask the lakes.

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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643–1687), was a French explorer who led expeditions through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River, claiming the Mississippi Valley for France and naming it Louisiana. He passed through Niagara and built Fort Conti near the river’s mouth in 1679 before launching Le Griffon on the Great Lakes. La Salle was killed by his own men in 1687 near present-day Navasota, Texas, after a failed attempt to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi.

Monuments to La Salle are scattered across the United States, and his legacy lives on in the names of parks, schools, and landmarks. Pictured above are monuments in Navasota, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; and San Antonio, Texas. Also shown is a park along the Niagara River in Buffalo, New York, that bears his name, as well as Lake LaSalle and the iconic Baird Point monument on the campus of the University at Buffalo.