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The car ferry Ariel, circa 1923 (Photo from the Ruth B. Logue Collection, MS 86-30, Archives of Michigan).
After World War I, Michigan faced a unique challenge in getting automobiles across the Straits of Mackinac. For many years, the railroad car ferries Ste. Marie and Chief Wawatam served as the primary method of transporting goods and people across the waterway. Public frustration had grown with expensive transport of automobiles by the railroad car ferries. It cost $40 to ship an automobile on a flatcar across the Straits, and the gas tank had to be emptied beforehand. With the growing number of automobiles and the desire of their owners to get to and from the Upper Peninsula, some Michigan residents began calling for an alternative.
State Ferry Service
Michigan Public Act 106 of 1923 created a state ferry service across the Straits of Mackinac. The Department of State Highways was to administer the service.
In July 1923, the Department of State Highways acquired the former Detroit River ferry Ariel. On August 2, 1923, Ariel, carrying three automobiles, made her first trip across the Straits of Mackinac. With only a twenty-automobile capacity, the boat was too small for the service intended. Even so, she carried 10,351 passenger cars across the Straits during the first season of work, so the need to expand the fleet became apparent.
The Ste. Ignace and Mackinaw City (Image of a 1925 postcard by the C.C. Eby company of St. Ignace, Michigan)
Sainte Ignace and Mackinaw City
The U.S. created a massive national shipbuilding program during World War I. Because of the short duration of American involvement in the war, there were a terrific number of excess ships after the war ended. The State of Michigan saw an opportunity. In 1923, it purchased two boats – the Colonel Pond and the Colonel Card – from the United States Shipping Board. The State paid $30,000 total for the two of them.
The Colonel Pond and the Colonel Card were each 130 feet long with a 38-foot beam. In the spring of 1924, they were lengthened an additional fifty feet by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in Detroit. This enabled them to carry forty automobiles each. The new craft were named Sainte Ignace and Mackinaw City.
Expansion and End
The new automobile ferries were an immediate success, with cross-channel traffic quadrupling in their second year (That year, some 38,000 automobiles made the trip.). After years of service, the fleet expanded, first by modifying their boats with additional decks, and later with new (to the fleet) boats, including former railroad car ferries. The other boats serving over the years included the Straits of Mackinac (It began service in 1928); City of Cheboygan (1937), City of Munising (1938), City of Petoskey (1940) and Vacationland (1952).
With the opening of the Mackinac Bridge in November 1957, the state-operated automobile ferry system came to an end. It had operated for thirty-four years and transported approximately twelve million vehicles and thirty million passengers.
Vacationland, one of the later Straits of Mackinac Ferries (Photo by Michigan State Highway Department, circa 1952)
Sources:
Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record,
Vol. 32, No. __, December 15, 1923. p. 14.
Vol. 33, No. 23, June 7, 1924. p. 13.
Vol. 37, No. 5, January 30, 1926. p. 8.
Vol. 41, No. 18, May 5, 1928. p. 20.
Michigan Investor,
Vol. 22, No. 26, February 2, 1924. p. 9.
Michigan State Ferry Album (Mackinac Bridge Authority Web Site)
Michigan Historical Calendar: August 2 (Clarke Historical Library Web Site)
For Further Research: Archives of Michigan Collections
Browse Archives of Michigan Circular No. 46 – Shipping and Navigation
For Further Reading:
If you get a chance, riding the SS Badger across Lake Michigan from Ludington to Manitowoc, WI is a lot of fun. It used to be a rail ferry but is now a car ferry. It’s also one of the last coal-fired ships in the country.
Our family spent many an hour waiting for the ferry. The cars were lined up on holidays for miles. This was before air conditioned cars. It was hot and sticky. Thank goodness for the ice cream carts that would come down the lanes of cars. It was a real pleasure to finally get directed onto the ferry and take the magical boat ride across the water. Driving across the bridge is fast and majestic, but the ferry experience was a special treat.
You can experience the car ferry service in the province of Ontario in Canada similar to what once ran across the Straits of Mackinac by taking the Chi-Chemaan between Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula and South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island. During the summer the ferry runs four times daily. The trip takes 1 hour and 45 minutes.
My Father was raised by St.Ignace and my Uncle lived in the Soo-so we crossed the Mackinaw Straits many times by ferry than later on by the bridge-if the ferry’s were still in operation I would use them-My Father was born in 1887,my Grandfather had a store just west of St.Ignace-he sold used furniture and used Mules to the loggers-later on moving to the Soo.
My fathers name was Tom Jewell he started working on the City of Cheboygan and worked on all the boats up to the time when the Bridge was built, when the State Ferry Boats were retired his last job was Captain on The Vacationland. A few years later a bunch of the men who worked on the Boats bought The Straits of Mackinaw and used it for their Mackinaw Island Ferry Company. Then in later years he became Captain on The Chief Wawatam the railroad car Ferry that ran from Mackinaw City to St Ignace in the middle 1970’s. When I was a kid living in Mackinaw City I used to sell pop, postcards, ice cream, popcorn, candy bars and other things to the people lined up in their cars to go across the Straits.
Just a note: few people realize that the official registered name of the ferry Michigan built in 1928 was “The Straits of Mackinac.” The article “The” was actually a part of the official name, unlike the boat which replaced her in the Straits Transit Mackinac Island ferry fleet, “Straits of Mackinac II” which did not include the article in the name.