Lake Ontario’s Bermuda Triangle: Hundreds of ships and dozens of planes have disappeared in the Great Lake. Many are yet to be found

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States is giving “serious consideration” to changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as tensions with Canada escalate. The proposal has suddenly put one of North America's five Great Lakes in the spotlight — but Lake Ontario has a history that goes far beyond its name.

Lake Ontario is bordered by the Canadian province of Ontario to the north and west and New York state to the south and east. It covers about 7,320 square miles and reaches a maximum depth of roughly 800 feet.

From the shoreline, the lake can appear calm and almost timeless. Beneath the surface, however, lies a vast maritime history of shipwrecks, lost aircraft and underwater sites that have earned part of the lake an eerie reputation.


In eastern Lake Ontario, an area known as the Marysburgh Vortex has long been compared with the Bermuda Triangle. The area is generally associated with waters between Wolfe Island, Mexico Bay near Oswego, New York, and Point Petre in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Estimates vary, but historical accounts have associated the area with as many as 500 lost ships and 40 aircraft. The exact number is difficult to establish, and there is no evidence that the losses were caused by anything supernatural.

Instead, maritime historians have pointed to familiar hazards that made sailing Lake Ontario dangerous, including severe weather, sudden storms, fog, submerged reefs, fires, navigation errors and other problems faced by vessels before modern forecasting and navigation technology.

Still, the number of losses has helped give the area its unusual nickname.

And the underwater story extends far beyond the Marysburgh Vortex.

The Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary now protects a collection of nearly 70 known historic shipwrecks and one historic aircraft, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA says many more shipwrecks remain to be discovered.

The sanctuary's wrecks represent more than two centuries of maritime history. They include commercial sailing vessels, working ships and other craft that met different fates on the lake.

Some have survived in remarkable condition because of Lake Ontario's cold, fresh water.

One example is the schooner St. Peter, which sank in the 19th century. The 135-foot, three-masted vessel rests upright in about 117 feet of water and is described by NOAA as a nearly intact wreck.

The preservation is one reason Lake Ontario has become an important site for underwater archaeological research.

The lake's depths have effectively created an underwater time capsule. Wooden vessels, ship structures and other remnants can survive for generations in the cold, freshwater environment, allowing researchers and divers to see pieces of maritime history that would have disappeared elsewhere.

Yet even with modern sonar, archival research and underwater exploration, the known wrecks represent only part of the story.

NOAA's earlier research for the sanctuary identified additional potential wreck sites beyond those already confirmed. Its records show that researchers continue to update the number of known and potential underwater archaeological sites as new information emerges.

That means the mystery surrounding Lake Ontario isn't necessarily about ships disappearing without explanation.

It is about how much of the lake's history may still be sitting unseen beneath its surface.

The Marysburgh Vortex's Bermuda Triangle reputation may sound mysterious, but the real story is arguably more fascinating: generations of ships crossed one of North America's Great Lakes, some never reached their destinations, and many of their stories remain preserved underwater.

Today, Lake Ontario is one of the world's busiest freshwater environments, bordered by major cities and crossed by modern vessels. Yet below those waters are shipwrecks that can be more than a century old — and potentially many more that have yet to be found.