{"id":3506,"slug":"ss-meteor-superior-wisconsin","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Meteor is the last whaleback — McDougall's 1896 pigboat, the cigar-shaped freighter that rode the Great Lakes. The design was the innovation — the rounded hull that shed the waves, the snout bow and the turrets, the fuel economy for the locks. The Rockefeller name was the first — the Frank Rockefeller that carried the Mesabi ore, the thirty-sixth of the forty-four.","The museum is the survival — the 1969 retirement, the only whaleback left afloat, the tours through the turrets. The whistle is the sound — the steam engine that still works, the pilot house to the cargo holds. The Meteor is the Great Lakes' oddity — the whale-shaped ship that was the practical answer, the last of the pigboats preserved at Superior.","The file keeps the SS Meteor: the 1896 launch, the whaleback design, the Rockefeller name, and the museum.","SS Meteor is the archive's Superior file — the last whaleback."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["SS Meteor is the archive's Superior file — the whaleback that survived.","A ship keeps its shape — the file's suggestion being that the Meteor's hold is the design: the cigar hull that rode low, the snout that was the trademark, and the museum that's the last of its kind."]}],"name":"SS Meteor","aliases":[],"type":"SITE","type_label":"Site","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","MUSEUM","MARITIME"],"groups":["hauntings","legends"],"desc":"The 1896 whaleback—the last of her kind.","full_desc":"SS Meteor is a site in Superior, Wisconsin. The 1896 whaleback—the last of her kind. HauntHunt files it with maritime history, museums and local folklore. Its accounts name only a collective — the crew. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 2 legends, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Superior","county":null,"state":"Wisconsin","postal":null,"region":"Midwest","lat":46.692119,"lon":-92.080356,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"SHIP batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":3820,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported figures on the ship. SS Meteor in Superior, Wisconsin carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. Local lore carries the account; no documentation has ever caught up with it. It is the sighting the place is known for, and it hasn't stopped. It remains the site's standing claim.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"SS Meteor","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Meteor_(1896)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3821,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The dead are reportedly seen. The presences go by the crew in the file. SS Meteor in Superior, Wisconsin carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. 'SS Meteor' carries the account. Named ghosts are the ones that last — this one has lasted.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The crew","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"SS Meteor","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Meteor_(1896)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The 1896 ship is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. Sources including 'SS Meteor' carry the record. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1896","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"SS Meteor","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Meteor_(1896)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Reported figures on the ship. SS Meteor's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. Local lore carries the account; no documentation has ever caught up with it. The legend does what legends do — it explains the place in a way the records can't. The account stays in the file — reported, retold, unresolved.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"SS Meteor","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Meteor_(1896)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}},{"name":null,"summary":"The dead are reportedly seen. The reports at SS Meteor are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. The retelling is the record now — the legend metabolized the facts long ago. The account stays in the file — reported, retold, unresolved.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"SS Meteor","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Meteor_(1896)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The crew","claimed_identity":"The crew","verified":null,"summary":"The dead are reportedly seen. The lore files them collectively as the crew. SS Meteor in Superior, Wisconsin carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. Named presences persist where anonymous reports fade — the file's name here is The crew. The reports keep the address on the map.","behavior":"The dead are reportedly seen.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"SS Meteor","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Meteor_(1896)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"SS Meteor","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Meteor_(1896)","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":2,"entities":1,"sources":1}}