She was a so-called monitor vessel, containing elements of traditional lake freighters and the whaleback ships designed by Alexander McDougall.

On her regular route between Detroit, Escanaba, Marquette (all in Michigan), and Cleveland, she carried iron ore downbound, and coal upbound.

She was discovered resting under 300 feet (90 meters) of water, lying on her starboard side with the bow partially buried in the lake bottom.

[8] As the railways were unable to keep up with the rapid production of iron ore (which was normally destined for foundries in Ohio and Pennsylvania), most of it was transported by bulk freighters.

Ships with this hybrid design were known as "monitors", "semi-whalebacks" or "straight-backs", and like the true whalebacks, they were vulnerable to getting a wet deck in stormy conditions.

[10] When Choctaw was travelling on Lake St. Clair on April 19, 1893, one of her cylinder heads exploded, scalding two firemen to death, and severely injuring another.

[17][32] At around 4:30 a.m. (EST), the Canadian canaller Wahcondah, which was downbound with a cargo of wheat from Fort William, Ontario to Montreal,[33] sighted Choctaw.

[46]The day after she sank, Captain Nelson Brown of the steamer James H. Reed spotted Choctaw's upper cabins floating off Presque Isle, Michigan, and was able to read the ship's name as he approached them.

[35][43][47] Nine days after Choctaw sank, 40 feet (12 m) of her cabin and several timbers were discovered one mile (1.6 km) north of Middle Island by the coast guard, and a lighthouse keeper.

After Choctaw sank, Cleveland-Cliffs libeled Wahcondah, alleging that she was travelling at an excessive speed for the conditions, and should be held responsible for the collision.

[33][50] An examination of Choctaw's logbook revealed that despite the fog, she had travelled at full speed throughout the entire year, including at the time of the collision.

[50] Cleveland-Cliffs appealed the decision, claiming that the judge had no right to disregard the testimony of Choctaw's crew based on the logbook details, and argued that not checking a vessel's speed in fog was not a punishable offence.

The sea was smooth, and there would have been no difficulty in standing on the bow turret, and that location, seemingly, would not have been beyond calling distance for making reports.

[17][55] Shipwreck hunters from the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary collaborated with Stock in 2008 to map the wreck of Kyle Spangler.

In August 2008, they partnered with the University of Rhode Island but rather than finding Choctaw, they located the wreck of the passenger steamer Messenger.

Although they failed to locate Choctaw, they found the wrecks of the steel hulled freighter Etruria, which sank on the lake after a collision with the steamer Amasa Stone,[56] and the schooner M.F.

[54][57][58] Between April and July 2017, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary collaborated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research to test new equipment including unmanned aircraft systems and autonomous underwater vehicles that were designed to search for missing shipwrecks.

[59] On May 23, 2017, researchers from Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary discovered two shipwrecks in the deep waters of Lake Huron,[60][61] off the coast of Presque Isle.

[65][66] Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary did not announce their discovery until September 1, 2017, and avocational shipwreck hunters continued to search for Choctaw.

[31] The wreck rests on her starboard side, nearly upside down, with the exposed section of her hull rising at an angle from the lake bottom.

[47] The wreck of Choctaw was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 2018, for its state-level significance in engineering and maritime history.