SOUTH HAVEN, MI - During her workhorse years, the 86-foot-long Lizzie Throop could be found busily ferrying cargo from port to port. When she sank in a squall in 1873, she was another aging schooner who ended up on the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Fast forward 145 years. Explorers from the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association announced this week they've found the Lizzie Throop's final resting place, sitting in about 280 feet of water some 15 miles northwest of South Haven.

Historians with the MSRA said they knew the ship was quite old when they discovered it. They've explored it several times, making note of details to confirm its identity.

Why were they so tickled to find this one? It's an early piece of West Michigan maritime history. The Lizzie Throop was one of the first ships built in Ottawa County, in 1849, with wood milled at one of the Grand Haven area's earliest sawmills.

It was owned by an early, prominent Grand Haven resident, Nathan Throop.

"While not the object of our search, this wreck captured our interest because features on the vessel suggested it was very old," said MSRA's Valerie van Heest.

The wreck of the Lizzie Throop. Photo courtesy of the MSRA

It's one of nearly a dozen wrecks the MSRA has found, all while searching for a missing plane. For 14 years, the group has partnered with author Clive Cussler and his National Underwater Marine Agency in their persistent search for Northwest Airlines Flight 2501, a passenger plane that crashed in Lake Michigan in 1950, killing all 58 aboard.

So even though the Lizzie Throop wasn't what the divers were after, it's still a good find.

The two-masted schooner set sail from Muskegon on Oct. 16, 1873, on a lumber run to Chicago.

She left around sunset that night. By 11 p.m., she was caught in a squall. A few hours later, she started taking on water, according to an account by the MSRA.

The first mate later reported:

"At 1 p.m., she filled with water up to her decks. At this time, we were away from land about 15 miles. At half past 6 p.m., she rolled over. The men took to the rigging, except the mate, who steered her until she rolled over. Three of the men got into the boat, the Captain and cook having before this washed off and drowned. The three men, including the mate, left the boat and got into the hull. ... The vessel began to break up and the three men were washed off of her. One was drowned, and the other two got ashore on a piece of the wreck."

The survivors made it to shore about nine miles north of South Haven.

But the MSRA team isn't giving up all the Lizzie Throop's secrets quite yet. The story behind the find will be featured prominently at the group's 20th annual film festival, "Mysteries and Histories Beneath the Inland Seas."

It will be held March 24 in Holland at Hope College's Jack H. Miller auditorium.

Other pieces of the program include:

"Ships That Go Bump in the Night" by Dan Fountain

"The Last Whaleback Steamer

"Return to the

The True Story of the Baby Jane by Valerie van Heest

Tickets are $13.50 in advance, $16.00 at the door and free with various membership levels - all available at www.MichiganShipwrecks.org