July 13, 1890

Captain David Wethern’s ship, The Sea Wing, capsizes in a storm on Lake Pepin, a wide section of the Missisippi River that borders Minnesota and Wisconsin. 98 passengers drown, including David Wethern’s wife Nellie and son Purley. The Sea Wing Disaster was one of the worst maritime disasters to happen on inland waters. The most comprehensive website about it is here: http://www.postbulletin.com/specials/seawing/

Google also turned up some archival news articles. Pretty interesting.

July 27, 2008

Having moved to the area without any realization of familial connection, I’m intrigued and decide to take advantage of my coincidental proximity. I set out to Lake Pepin to take a look.

…

When I moved to Minnesota near the end of 2005, I didn’t realize that I had family history here. I’m sure my relatives had mentioned it to me at some point in my life, but I didn’t retain the knowledge, so I was surprised when my family alerted me to the fact that I just so happened to be relocating to where we Wetherns were a few generations back. In fact, a cursory glance through public record reveals more people named Wethern currently in the Twin Cities (mostly St. Paul) than in my hometown of New Orleans, and I know they’re all my relatives.

My Dad sent me some family information when I first got here, pointing me towards Anoka (which I still haven’t been to, even though it’s part of the metro area), and also mentioned the Sea Wing disaster. Now, two and a half years later, I decided to explore my ancestry in this region.

Equipped with my father’s old Pentax SLR, my Blackberry, a digital voice recorder, a map, handwritten notes, and my iPod and FM transmitter, I hit the road for the major points of interest related to the Sea Wing and my ancestry in the Lake Pepin area. My friend Nick was going to accompany me, but he was violently hung over, and we decided he’d better sit this one out.

Part I: Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin

Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin, was the first stop, about an hour away from Minneapolis on the east side of the river. It’s the hometown of David Wethern and his Sea Wing.

To call Diamond Bluff a “town” is generous. It would be easy to drive through it and not notice it. There was a concentrated area of houses between the railroad tracks and the river. Thanks to a heads-up from my friend Keith, I knew that Diamond Bluff Cemetery contained the Wethern clan. I turned off the highway, deciding that it wouldn’t take long to scour Diamond Bluff for the cemetery. I was correct. I found it almost instantly.

And no sooner had I entered the cemetery, than I saw this:

I’ll admit to getting sort of a chill. I mean, think of it. I was alone in a remote Wisconsin town, population 479, in a strange place where I never in a million years thought I’d ever go, and bam, I see my own family. If my move to Minnesota hadn’t been so coincidental to my family connection, it wouldn’t be so weird, but I didn’t know, and it had nothing to do with my coming here. There was something dreamlike, primal, and downright Jungian about this experience.

One grave memorialized Nellie and Purley, David Wethern’s wife and son. Nearby was a simple, small, ruddy, brick-like stone that simply said, “DNW.” I presume that’s David himself. A couple hundred feet away, far outside of the Wethern plot, was an infant of David and Nellie’s that had died years earlier.

Many of the stones had suffered the whips and scorns of time and, at 100+ years old, were too weathered to read. I did catch that the Mero family plot, adjacent to the Wetherns, contained victims of the Sea Wing disaster.

I took some photos, but since it was real film, it’ll be a bit before they’re developed.

After wandering the rest of the tiny cemetery, I decided to explore the rest of Diamond Bluff and the surrounding area. I didn’t see anything else of historical interest, but I did see signs advertising what must be the only business in Diamond Bluff: The Nauti Hawg Bar & Grill!

The Nauti Hawg overlooks the river, and is apparently quite popular. I figured that the entire town’s population spends their Sunday there. I decided to sample the local flavor and head inside.

The place was packed to the gills with bikers and rural Wisconsin families. If no other experience that day made me feel like a traveler, my time at the Nauti Hawg sure did.

After an agonizingly long wait in the overcrowded bar, I finally got my burger, which was very good. I noticed that there was an unusually high ratio of motorcycles to…well…everything else. Was there some sort of convention? Seriously, it was like I landed on a planet where bikers evolved from men. This was true of the whole region.

I finished my lunch and hit the road again, crossing the water back into Minnesota.

to be continued…(because Dunn Bros. is closing)