PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) – A state commission is poised to designate the site of a 1911 shipwreck off the Indiana Dunes State Park shoreline as the state's first underwater preserve.

The Munster Times reports the Natural Resource Commission is due to vote Sept. 17 on creating the 100-acre J.D. Marshall Preserve. If approved, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources would dedicate the site Sept. 30.

IDNR Lake Michigan Coastal Program Director Mike Molnar told a Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission panel Thursday the preserve would be named for the sand-hauling ship that sprung a leak, capsized in a storm and sank, killing four crew members. He says buoys designating the four corners of the preserve would keep boats from dropping anchor and possibly damaging the wreck site.