Welcome to “Michigan Mysteries.com”, the website of Author and Shipwreck Hunter Ross Richardson. This website is dedicated to the stories of the missing persons, missing aircraft, missing maritime vessels and the unrecovered drowning victims of the Michigan Region. The Michigan Region includes the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, Islands, as well as the Great Lakes which are contiguous with Michigan’s mainland: Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
Richardson is the author of two books, “The Search for the Westmoreland: Lake Michigan’s Treasure Shipwreck” and “Still Missing: Rethinking the D.B. Cooper Case and Other Mysterious Unsolved Disappearances.” He also speaks about Great Lakes maritime history at libraries and historical societies around the Great Lakes Region.
Richardson is a trained technical SCUBA diver and has been involved in the discovery, identification, and documentation of numerous Lake Michigan shipwrecks. He serves on the board of the Maritime Heritage Alliance based in Traverse City Michigan.
The author resides in Lake Ann, Michigan, with his wife, son and their retired racing greyhound, Claire. He enjoys giving folks rides in his 1964 Lincoln and working on various woodworking projects in his workshop.
In The News…
Detroit News: Diver discovers shipwreck cluster
“I was looking for wrecks that haven’t been discovered and have a decent last known position,” said Richardson, who’s originally from Grand Rapids. “This is kind of the last place in Lake Michigan where there’s a concentration of wrecks that…
Could missing man from Grayling, Mich. be D.B. Cooper?
Robert Richard Lepsy was a grocery store manager, husband and father of four. On October 29, 1969, Lepsy mysteriously disappeared from Grayling and, to this day, hasn’t been seen or heard from since. “On the day he disappeared, he called…
mlive.com: On remote Lake Michigan shoal, diver finds undiscovered shipwreck cluster
Filming the wrecks, he said, is a way to share the history and experience. The wrecks, he said, “are right here in our backyard.” “You only have to travel a few hours to come across a place that people haven’t…
Macomb Daily News: Michigan’s mysterious treasure ship, the Westmoreland, found after 156 years
“… advances in diving and sonar technology certainly gave Richardson advantages over all of the expeditions before him, but ending up in the right place at the right time and dogged efforts to find the wreck certainly helped his cause.”…
mlive.com: Gold and whiskey cargo fuels legend of the Westmoreland shipwreck
“…until 155 years after the sinking, when a diver and shipwreck sleuth from Grand Rapids would find what others could not; the wreck of the Westmoreland sitting upright on the lake bed, 200 feet under the surface of a bay…
Traverse City Record Eagle: Diver says he found Westmoreland shipwreck
Ross Richardson set out on yet another search in what had become a series of personal expeditions for one of the Great Lakes’ noted shipwrecks… “This guy has done a super, super thing,” Sawtelle said. “It takes a man with…
WGN-Chicago: Diver finds clusters of undiscovered shipwrecks in Lake Michigan
Shipwreck hunter Ross Richardson was hoping to find one of these shipwrecks this past summer. Instead, he possibly discovered five clusters of shipwrecks. “I spent many hours planning the logistics of this expedition,” Richardson said, “I needed to be totally…
1892 W.H. Gilcher
Revisiting the mystery of the W.H. Gilcher Posted by editor – August 25, 2005 – Investigative Article3 By Jed JaworskiSun contributorThe infamous loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald shocked the entire Great Lakes community. How could one of the largest vessels, using modern technology, simply vanish with all…
Apple Podcasts: DB COOPER – ROSS RICHARDSON ENCORE 2014
Listen to the podcast here: DB COOPER – ROSS RICHARDSON ENCORE 2014
Scuba Obsessed #35: Ross Richardson Discovers the Westmoreland.
Listen to the full Netcast here: Scuba Obsessed Netcast #35: Ross Richardson Discovers the Westmoreland.