LADY ELGIN
Site — Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Status: Operating · Access: Open to public
Dossier: https://haunthunt.com/place/lady-elgin-milwaukee-wisconsin/

September 8, 1860—Lake Michigan’s deadliest wreck.

A site in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lady Elgin is filed here for what the record attaches to it. September 8, 1860—Lake Michigan’s deadliest wreck. HauntHunt files it with maritime disasters, dark history and local folklore. The file’s recurring figure goes by a name, not a description: the 300. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.

The Lady Elgin is the '60 — the September 8 that's the sinking, the 300 that's the dead. The Augusta is the collision — the 'unlit' that's the schooner, the 'lumber' that's the load. The Third Ward is the devastated — the Irish that's the community, the 'militia' that's the charter.
The Life-Saving is the legacy — the '71 service that's the created, the '73 lighthouse' that's the Evanston. The 'no manifest' is the unknown — the '400-600' that's the estimate, the 'names' that's the lost. The Lady Elgin is the worst — the 'Great Lakes' that's the record, the 'rules' that's the changed.
The file keeps the Lady Elgin: the 1860 sinking, the 300 dead, the Augusta collision, and the safety reforms.
The Lady Elgin is the archive's Milwaukee file — the lake's deadliest.

WHY THIS FILE MATTERS
The Lady Elgin is the archive's Milwaukee file — the deadliest wreck.
A ship keeps its ward — the file's suggestion being that the Elgin's hold is the change: the '300' that's the dead, the 'Life-Saving' that's the created, and the 'Third Ward' that's the devastated.

FILED CLAIMS — 2 on record, reported not verified
· [Documented legend] named ghost legend: The dead are reportedly seen. The 300 is the name the reports keep returning to. The site in Milwaukee, Wisconsin gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. 'Lady Elgin' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease.
  source: Lady Elgin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Elgin_(steamer))
· [Anecdotal] apparition: Reported a presence at the site. Lady Elgin's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. Witness accounts, no evidence file: the claim is anecdotal and stays that way. 'Lady Elgin' carries the account. The figure remains the site's most-repeated sighting.
  source: Lady Elgin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Elgin_(steamer))

HISTORY — 1 documented facts
· The September 8, 1860 sinking is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The detail is preserved in 'Lady Elgin'. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.

SOURCES — 1 cited
· Lady Elgin — Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Elgin_(steamer)

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HauntHunt is a research archive. Claims are filed as reported — documented where sources exist, marked as folklore or unverified where they do not.
Methodology: https://haunthunt.com/methodology/ · Corrections: https://haunthunt.com/report/