Here is a 1961 Hiawatha postcard of THE STRAITS OF MACKINAC operating as a passenger ferry between Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island. As a footnote, I might mention that the former owners of the Hiawatha Card Co. graciously bequeathed their entire business to your webmaster. Needless to say, I now have an extensive collection of both postcards and the original transparencies from which they were made.
When the Mackinac Straits Bridge was opened in 1957 between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, the State of Michigan went out of the ferry business. They sold the smallest ferry, THE STRAITS OF MACKINAC, to former crew members for an amount reputed to be $25,000. These men proceeded to run the vessel as a passenger ferry between St. Ignace and Mackinac Island. This operation did not prove to be a profitable venture and so the firm known as Straits Transit, Inc. joined with Dick Welch's Mackinaw City based Mackinac Island Ferry Co. From then on, the steamer operated between Mackinaw City and the Island. Here you see the vessel at the former auto ferry dock in Mackinaw City waiting to load passengers for a trip to the Island.
Unfortunately, THE STRAITS OF MACKINAC has fallen on sad times. This is a recent shot of the old boat as it sat in a swampy area near the north end of Kewaunee, Wisconsin where it had been partially grounded since the mid-90's. You can barely make out a few letters of its original name near the bow. Plans were afoot to sink the boat in Lake Michigan and use it as an underwater playground for scuba divers.
On the following page you can view more pictures of THE STRAITS OF MACKINAC as it lay in Kewaunee, Wisconsin.
Or if you'd rather do so, go back toTHE INDEX PAGE.