Minnesota's Hisoric Websites:   http://www.mnhs.org/prepast/mnshpo/ship/ship.html

      The historical wedsite I chose was entitled "Minnesota's Historic Shipwrecks."  This website took a detailed look at the history of the great lakes and, in particular, shipwrecks off the Minnesota coast.  I chose it because I found the title intriguing and more than a little amusing.  What I discovered is that the shipwrecks of Minnesota aren't really all that intriguing and the amusement quickly wore thin.
    "Minnesota's Historic Shipwrecks" was put together by the Minnesota Historical Society to "preserve our meritime heritage," a phrase I never thought I'd hear from the great state of Minnesota.  The site is set up thematically, presenting you with names of a selection of historic shipwrecks, the "Lake Superior Shipwreck Exhibit" which is comprised mainly of tugs, bulk freighters, and dredges.  You can click the names and be taken to a web page about that ship.  These pages include pictures of the ships from when they were in service as well as where they rest at the bottom of Lake Superior.  These pages also have a number of links to further pages were you can learn the history of the ship, what it's job was, how it sunk, and what has happened to it since its sinking.
    On the introduction page there are also some links which take you to, in some cases, up to thirty pages of text about the history of Minnesota's coast, shipwrecks, and shipwreck preservation.  Too much text on a web site is not adviseable.  It is difficult to scroll and read at the same time and web users don't have the attention span to deal with a dissertation.  These facts were well illustrated in "Minnesota's Historic Shipwrecks."  It caused me to almost miss some of the bells and whistles that many websites have.  There were some lovely photos and color maps, but that is about as far as it went.  The site was very booklike without the usual multimedia intergration.  They were excited to inform me that "shipwreck video clips" were coming in July, however.
    All these pages of text were written in either black or blue type on a white background.  As you can see from this reveiw it is perfectly readable, but not particularly exciting.  The info was all easily accessible and I never got lost at all in the links.  The "Lake Superior Shipwreck Exhibit," however, appeared three times on the first page and all three links took you to the same place.  This is overkill.
    I don't see that "Minnesota's Historic Shipwrecks" displays a great deal of technical skill.  The maps and pictures are all very nice and remind the user of what these relics at the bottom of Lake Superior once looked like, but not in any way that could not be done in print.  The design serves the function of  helping to "preserve our maritime history," but only if you take the time to read a good deal of the text.  This is something I doubt the typical web surfer would do.
    I do not think this website would be valueable to many people.  It may be more useful to anyone from the Minnesota or Lake Superior area.  It is a very specific website which is proabably visited by a number of people intrigued by the title who look at a few pictures and than move on.