Great Lakes

Interlake's Herbert C. Jackson at Macarthur Lock, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, June of 2005.

Memorial Day weekend, 1990, from the deck of Boblo boat St. Clair . Taken on the annual river outing of the Marine Historical Society of Detroit . My memory says the boat at the coal dock was James Barker , but I consider that unreliable. I'm gonna be paying for my fast film habit forever....

Sarnia's casino, Port Huron's MOC, and some boats on the river. July 3, 2005; shot from under the Blue Water Bridge.

From the beach, in front of the light. They tell me there's a shipwreck down the beach a bit, but we didn't go looking for it, largely because the flies were pretty aggressive. This lighthouse looks more like a schoolhouse than most. That house is a duplex; half is in use, I gather, while the other half is the main part of the museum. Forty Mile Point on Lake Huron, just north of Rogers City.

The stockade, the roof of the Great Hall, and the "voyageur campground" show in this view from the dock at Grand Portage National Monument, on Lake Superior in northern Minnesota. That's Joan, of course, walking on the dock. The dock, of course, is not part of the reconstruction. It is, however, the boarding point for two of the Isle Royale ferries.

Another photo taken from the breakwater at Grand Marais, Minnesota. I like all those colors, and all that motion. While it's difficult to use the (viewfinder-less) FujiFilm F10 in bright light, the results are often quite fine.

At the Manistique light; north end of Lake Michigan.

The Corps of Engineers has a large crane barge, called Paul Bunyan, at Sault Ste. Marie. Shown here in Davis Lock on Engineers Day, 2005.

If you grew up in the Midwest, you learned about the Voyageurs in elementary school..... The North West Company's operations required moving freight between Montreal and the great wilderness. Much of this commerce travelled by large canoe; these canoes were propelled by legendary masters of the wilderness called Voyageurs. I'm sure the job seemed intolerable to those who paddled those canoes, but to this young Michigander it seemed incredibly romantic. At Grand Portage, the Voyageurs lived in a tent village outside the stockade. This small display represents that village.

The highway bridge (above) and the railroad bridge (below), crossing above the St. Mary's Falls--and the locks--between Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Another photo from Engineers Day, 2005.

Passenger ship Nantucket Clipper and 1000-foot lakes boat Oglebay Norton downbound at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, sometime in 1998. This is my Chinon Genesis at its best. I reached through the fence, pointed it at the ships, and let the camera get the focus right. It generally handled these situations right; over the years I learned to trust it. Of course, if I tried to do this nowadays I'd likely get shot....

The Lake Superior shoreline at Cascade River State Park in northern Minnesota.

Grand Traverse Bay from Holiday Inn West Bay in Traverse City. I showed you this dock a few months ago; perhaps this gull, also....

The Great Lakes Maritime Academy is directly next door to Holiday Inn West Bay in Traverse City, and this ship was basically what we could see from our room (ignoring beach, birds, & surf). It's a key part of the GLMA's training facilities. More information at the Academy's website .

At Sault Ste. Marie in 1998. We didn't realize it yet, but the Clipper --a passenger ship cruising on the Great Lakes--was just ending a cruise. She parked here long enough for the passengers to finish their dinner, then moved a bit down the river and let everyone off. She's now mostly cruising elsewhere , but there are other cruises available. Certainly looked like a fun vacation....

At Frankfort (foreground) and Elberta, Michigan, in 1991. The ship had recently been appointed a National Historic Landmark. City of Milwaukee was built in 1930 for the Grand Trunk Railway, and ended her career in 1981 when the State closed down the Ann Arbor Railroad ferry operation. She sat there in the Frankfort harbor for nearly two decades, then moved to Manistee. She's functioning now as a museum . The alert reader will notice that the two sites I've linked to show slightly different dates for "built" and "retired." Such is life, I guess.

The best thing about boatwatching the MacArthur Lock in Sault Ste. Marie is that you're so close to the boat, and to the people on the boat. For the next few photos, we'll be watching these gents pass by as the ship works its way through the lock. Sault, Michigan; June, 2005.

Duluth harbor, from the pilot house of former US Steel Great Lakes Fleet flagship William A. Irvin , in August of 1988 (I think.) The Irvin was retired in the late 1970s, and has been a museum in Duluth's harbor for the past two decades. That's the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge , of course, near the center of the photo. The ferry sharing the channel with the the Irvin is Wenonah . Wenonah's now one of the boats ferrying visitors from Grand Portage to Isle Royale, but I don't know what she was doing in 1988.