By Sarah K. Simon
Sunday, November 2, was cold and windy. It was the kind of day that could stir a Gordon Lightfoot lyric from the depths. As I climbed a steep cliff above Black Beach near Silver Bay, it felt as though the gales of November had come early, whipping across the big lake we call Gitchigummi.
But this wasn’t the site of a freighter’s final voyage. It was where two young men, Austin Henning and Max Williams, were claimed by the same lake, pulled from shore by frigid waves that can be as dangerous in June as they are in November. Now, a new permanent memorial stands to watch over the water, its solar fire light flickering, something Austin’s mother, Beth Ann Henning, said both boys would think was “pretty cool.”
A previous memorial, a cross bearing the names of the eighteen year-olds who perished on June 25, 2023, while cliff diving, had been mysteriously removed sometime before Labor Day weekend. When Beth Ann inquired, city park staff said they hadn’t taken it down. It was eventually found in a city storage shed.
“We were very unhappy with the reasoning that I was given as to why the other one disappeared, which was ‘it had been long enough,’” said Beth Ann. “How long is long enough to stop another death?”
Beth Ann, of Inver Grove Heights, expressed frustration that no one had notified her or the family. She still wonders what happened to the painted rocks left by visitors from all over. Her heart breaks thinking they may have been carelessly dis carded.
“People were laying stones on it and coins,” she said, once finding a stone painted from Mankato under the cross. “Somebody all the way from Mankato had heard about this and brought it up.”
The new memorial includes a warning:
CAUTION! DO NOT JUMP. Dangerous currents, large and rapid waves, underwater hazards, and extreme cold water year round. Sudden immersion can cause cold water shock, leading to hyperventilation and rapid loss of muscle control. Powerful cur rents and large waves can exhaust swimmers and pull them away from shore.
“Now it’s obvious what it’s here for and the reasoning why,” said Beth Ann of the marker, made by Austin’s best friend’s aunt, who lives in Iowa. “I felt the need to have another caution, and this is my portal when I’m up here.”
The post also features BMW and Subaru symbols, nods to the boys’ love of cars. The family chose not to replicate the cross design.
“They decided to take [the cross] out of it,” Beth Ann said, “so that there cannot be a complaint.”
It’s important to note that there is no ordinance, code, or policy preventing the placement of such memo rials. A Silver Bay resident at the memorial told Beth Ann, “You have a lot of support behind you. This is a great, great reminder.”
During the event, family members reflected on the lake’s dangers and how visitors unfamiliar with Lake Superior often see only its beauty, not the hidden risks beneath the waves.
“We aren’t here,” said Beth Ann. “We don’t know that. We see pictures and think, ‘ooh, pretty,’ but now we know.”
As we looked down at the water, Beth Ann remarked, “I can’t hate the lake. I just will never view it the same.”
Austin’s mother says her work isn’t finished.
“I’m trying to find ways to continue to find something good out of it or make something good out of it,” she said. “I’m going to talk to who ever I need to talk to along the three counties up here to get some form of signage or some awareness of the dangers of the lake.”
As Beth Ann showed me a gentler way down the cliff, I noticed visitors scattered along Black Beach, undeterred by the weather. It was a reminder of how the lake’s beau ty can be such a strong siren song, drawing people from all over the world to its shores, whether or not they know what lies beneath.
