A 550-foot Great Lakes freighter retired in 1966 and now docked in Sault Ste. Marie, housing two recovered lifeboats from the Edmund Fitzgerald and reporting EVP captures and shadow figures in the coal furnace hold.
326 E. Portage Avenue, Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticketed museum admission. Check thevalleycamp.com for current adult, senior, and child pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Steel-deck ship interior with ladders, stairs, and low clearances. Some areas require crouching. Not fully accessible.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1917 · 49 Years of Great Lakes Bulk Cargo Service (1917–1966) · Edmund Fitzgerald Lifeboat Recovery and Memorial Exhibit · National Register of Historic Places · Permanent Docking at Sault Ste. Marie (1968)
The SS Valley Camp was launched in 1917 at the American Ship Building Company's yard in Lorain, Ohio, and entered service as a bulk cargo carrier on the Great Lakes for the American Steel and Wire Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. The ship carried iron ore, coal, and grain across the lakes for nearly five decades under several operating companies.
The Valley Camp was retired from active service in 1966 after 49 years on the lakes. Rather than being scrapped, the ship was purchased and converted into a museum vessel, permanently docked on the St. Mary's River in downtown Sault Ste. Marie near the Soo Locks. The conversion preserved much of the original ship — engine room, crew quarters, cargo holds — while adding exhibit space for Great Lakes maritime history.
The museum's most significant holding is two lifeboats recovered from the Edmund Fitzgerald after that ship's sudden sinking in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. The Fitzgerald went down in a storm with all 29 crew members, making it one of the deadliest Great Lakes disasters of the twentieth century. The lifeboats were recovered from the lake surface after the sinking and now form the centerpiece of the Valley Camp's Fitzgerald memorial exhibit, which includes recovered artifacts and documentation of the disaster.
The Valley Camp was added to the National Register of Historic Places, recognizing its significance as a preserved example of early-twentieth-century Great Lakes bulk cargo shipping. The museum operates seasonally, typically from May through October.
Sources
The paranormal activity reported on the SS Valley Camp concentrates in the lower sections of the ship, particularly the area around the old coal furnace. Investigators describe the sound of coughing heard without anyone present in the space — a phenomenon that takes on particular resonance in a ship that spent decades hauling coal and whose crew would have worked in conditions associated with respiratory exposure.
The most documented piece of evidence is an EVP — an audio recording made during an investigation of the furnace area — in which a voice is heard stating 'I am coughing.' The 99wfmk investigation team recorded this and reported it as one of the clearer audio captures in their Michigan haunted-location research. Shadow figures have also been observed moving through the cargo holds and passageways of the ship, typically seen at the periphery of investigators' vision and not directly in light.
The Sault Ste. Marie Convention and Visitors Bureau includes the Valley Camp in its documented haunted locations, providing some official recognition of the ship's paranormal reputation alongside its historical significance. The presence of Edmund Fitzgerald artifacts — lifeboats from a wreck in which 29 men died — adds a layer of documented tragedy to the ship's environment, though investigators' accounts focus on the furnace areas rather than the Fitzgerald exhibit specifically.
Walk the 550-foot freighter at your own pace, touring the engine room, crew quarters, and cargo holds. The centerpiece exhibit is two actual recovered lifeboats from the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank November 10, 1975, with all 29 crew. The coal furnace section — where EVP investigators captured audio — is accessible on the self-guided route.
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