DULUTH — How did the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald become more famous than any shipwreck besides the Titanic? When Gordon Lightfoot read a Newsweek article about how Lake Superior “never gives up her dead,” he was inspired to write a song that would become one of the most unlikely pop hits ever.

This final episode of the News Tribune's five-part podcast covers the half-century since the ship was lost with all hands on Nov. 10, 1975.

Listeners will hear from a musician who knew Lightfoot, and from staff at four sites that keep the Fitzgerald’s memory alive with artifacts and ceremonies. As author Frederick Stonehouse says, all ships on the Great Lakes “now are wrapped into the legend of the Fitzgerald.”

Hear the complete audio here, or find "Edmund Fitzgerald: 50 Years Below" wherever y

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