Looking down from old fort, Mackinac Island, Mich by Detroit Publishing Co
This cool old photo from the Library of Congress shows ships at dock on Mackinac Island, including the black hulled steamer Juniata. Head over to the LOC for a lot more from Mackinac.
Better Stay of the Lake by Andrew McFarlane
Via Leelanau.com, here’s a photo of the Manitou Isle ferry that I took 20 years ago for . The boat was sold a year or so ago. According to the caption on the photo below that Manitou Island Transit recently shared, the beloved vessel is still sailing on the Great Lakes – off Michigan’s Thumb on Lake Huron! If anyone catches sight of it, be sure to let me know!
Manitou Transit service to North & South Manitou will begin on or before Memorial Day. More on their website.
Manitou Isle Unloading by Manitou Island Transit
Indian River Skiff by Great Lakes Boat Building School
The Great Lakes Echo has a nice feature on the Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville that begins:
At the northwest corner of Lake Huron, in Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula, is an 80 square-mile town of 240 people, one phone booth – and one boat building school.
That school is growing explosively, bringing the entire community along with it. Experts estimate that a planned expansion of the Great Lakes Boat Building School could bring an additional $2.5 million to residents of Cedarville.
The small town has a rich history of wooden boat building and repair. For over a century, wooden boats have been the primary mode of transportation around the nearby Les Cheneaux Islands. As the boating crafters grew older, the artful skill risked being lost.
To keep its wooden boat building heritage alive, the Cedarville community founded the school in 2005.
“In all of these academic qualifications we have for high school students, we have neglected our need for tradespeople,” said Ken Drenth, former Great Lakes Boat Building School president and current director of the Les Cheneaux Islands Community Foundation. “Everybody doesn’t have to get a four-year university degree. We need plumbers and electricians and wooden boat builders.”
The Great Lakes Boat Building School shared this on their Instagram. You can read more about their building of an Indian River Skiff on Facebook.
The Karen Andrie and Endeavor by Craig Hensley
Craig got this tasty shot of the tugboat Karen Andrie and the barge Endeavor making their way up the Detroit River last summer. Detroit is on the left & Windsor, Canada is on the right.
Head over to Craig’s Flickr and his website for more!
Sunrise over Lake Huron by Bruce Bugbee
Is this winter wearing on anyone else? If so, I invite you to sail to summertime with me on this sailboat that Bruce photographed in July 2021 on Lake Huron. He shares:
It was a hazy summer morning in St. Ignace, Michigan, giving a unique hue to the sky and sunrise. The haze was created by the wildfires in Ontario and out west. Captured a sailboat drifting by the red rising sun on a very calm and peaceful Lake Huron.
See more in Bruce’s Michigan photo album on Flickr.
Above is a portrait of Elsie Schuenemann at the wheel of the Christmas Ship, near the Clark Street Bridge on the Chicago River in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The boat carried Christmas trees to Chicago from Michigan. Her father, Captain H. Schuenemann, died when the Rouse Simmons, a ship carrying Christmas trees, sank in 1912.
The trees behind her likely came from the woods of Escanaba. Though the story of Barbara Schuenemann and her three daughters carrying on the tradition of the Christmas Tree Ships has perhaps been a little over-romanticized, there can be little doubt that the Schuenemann family and the many others who participated in the difficult trade of hauling Christmas trees south as the storms of winter closed in were heroes cut from a cloth that isn’t found too often today.
If you’d like to read more about all the Christmas tree ships (there were many more than just the famous Rouse Simmons) I recommend Christmas Tree Ships from Fred Neuschel. He has also written a book called Lives and Legends of the Christmas Tree Ships (available from UM Press). The National Archive also has The Christmas Tree Ship: Captain Herman E. Schuenemann and the Schooner Rouse Simmons that details the Schuenemann’s story.
You can also see Rich Evenhouse’s cool video of diving the Rouse Simmons.
Poe Reef lies just eight feet beneath Lake Huron’s surface between Bois Blanc Island and the Lower Peninsula mainland. Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light shares the story of Poe Reef Lightship LV62, launched on this day in 1893:
In 1892 two contracts totaling $55,960 were awarded to the Craig Shipbuilding Company in Toledo for the construction of four lightships. Designated as Lightships LV59, LV60, LV61 and LV62, all four vessels were built to similar specifications. Framed and planked of white oak they measured 87′ 2″ inches in length, 21′ 6″ inches in the beam, with a draft of 8 feet. In a cost-cutting effort, the vessels were un-powered, outfitted with only a small riding sail carried on a short after mast. Equipped with a cluster of three oil-burning lens lanterns hoisted on their foremasts, each was also equipped with 6″ steam whistles and hand-operated bells for fog use. Work was completed on the four vessels the following year, and after sea trials, all four were commissioned by the Board and placed into service, LV59 being assigned to Bar Point, LV60 to Eleven Foot Shoal, LV61 to Corsica Shoal and LV62 to Poe Reef.
With the words POE REEF brightly painted in white on her fire engine red hull, LV62 was towed to Poe Reef by the lighthouse tender Marigold, and anchored on station to begin her vigil on September 29, 1893. For the next seventeen years LV62 spent every shipping season faithfully guarding the shoal. With the end of each shipping season, one of the lighthouse tenders would make the rounds of all lightship stations in the Straits area, and tow them into Cheboygan harbor for winter lay-up. While in Cheboygan, necessary repairs and improvements would be made in preparation for the following season. At some time in March or April, the ice would break up sufficiently to allow the vessels to be towed back to their stations to stand guard for yet another season.
Head over to Seeing the Light for more about Poe Reef Lighthouse & the stories of all Michigan’s lighthouses compiled by a champion for their preservation who has gone too soon.
from a 4×5 glass negative by Bill Dolak
Bill shares:
The VanBuren County Historical Museum (a great afternoon visit, btw) is sitting on dozens, if not hundreds, of 4×5 glass negatives. Some of them were on display on a light table. I snapped a few with my iPhone and did a quick conversion of one using Snapseed (an iPhone image editor), which was perhaps the first time a “print” had been made from the negative in possibly a hundred years (these types of negatives were popular between the 1880s and the 1920s). Here are a few I “processed” in Lightroom. Sadly, I am sure that these images cannot reproduce the detail that is likely stored on those plates.
You can see more of his scans in the Michigan in Pictures group on Facebook & in his massive Michigan: Van Buren County gallery on Flickr!
Heading Home for the Night by TP Mann
TP took this shot a couple of years ago & shares:
This is an example of being at the right place and at the right time. The sun had set long ago and the boat heading in for the night. The light reflections added to the pure beauty of this beautiful evening. This from the pier in Charlevoix Michigan, located along beautiful Lake Michigan.
Here’s hoping you find yourself in the right place at the right time this weekend! See more in TP’s Charlevoix, Michigan gallery on Flickr.
Bay City Fireworks Festival by mark5032001
Wishing all of you a very happy Fourth of July!
Mark took this shot back in 2010 at the annual Bay City Fireworks Festival. See more in his Favorites gallery & enjoy your weekend!
Michigan in Pictures 