Autos Across Mackinac: Increase in Traffic Strains Ferry Capacity
Part 18: FALSE STARTS AND PROMISES
By Les Bagley

In the summer of 1936, the Highway Department chartered the Sainte Marie (II) as a freight boat to haul trucks and trailers. It worked out so well that the next winter she was chartered instead of the Chief Wawatam to provide all auto service, making five round trips a day. In this photo, she's even lettered "Chartered Michigan State Ferry." She's also stuck in the ice, and some of her passengers are being let off by ladder so they can walk to shore, a practice usually highly discouraged. (Author's collection)

To mark the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Mackinac Bridge, and the end of Michigan State Ferry service across the Straits of Mackinac, the St. Ignace News is presenting a weekly serialization of Les Bagley's history of the ferries, "Autos Across Mackinac." Last week he related how efforts to have the federal government finance a bridge in 1935 failed. Promoters had not given up hope as they entered 1936.

C. C. Eby's "Birchwood Arbor" stood at the end of St. Ignace Dock 1, at State Street. In 1936, he sold the building to the Highway Department, although kept the option of running it through one more hunting season. By the end of 1936, parts of the building had been moved and other parts torn down for the lumber. The state expanded parking near the dock.

As 1935 turned into 1936, things continued to look up. Charles Lindbergh's predictions that it would take five years before transcontinental flight proved wrong. The German dirigible Graf Zeppelin had already completed several seasons of commercial flights between Europe and South America. In just months, her sister ship, the larger Hindenberg would begin a scheduled half score of passenger flights across the North Atlantic between Germany and New Jersey. Both dirigibles carried the swastika emblem of the Nazi party on their tails, a reminder of the new German government under strongman Adolph Hitler. The world did not yet know the full meaning of what that symbol would come to represent.

People looked up locally, as well. For some time there had been sporadic airmail service between St. Ignace and Mackinac Island, and within just the past year, Wing's Garage had sponsored a visit of a gigantic Ford Tri-Motor aircraft to the local airfield. With all the government make-work programs, employment was again rising. Detroit auto plants had resumed production. And based on the traffic figures from 1935, 1936 looked like a banner year for the growing tourism industry in Northern Michigan. The only problem was getting tourists across the Straits of Mackinac.

The interior of the Birchwood Arbor featured paneled ceiling and walls, all in birch bark. Owner C. C. Eby liked the effect so much that he duplicated it in his new gift shop in the Mulcrone Building (site of the old post office), and he later used the same design at other tourist shops he owned, including the gift shops at the Indian Village and Castle Rock, on Highway 2 north of St. Ignace. (Author's collection)

Obviously, the best solution was a bridge, but so far, the $30 million or even $35 million estimated construction cost seemed even higher than dirigibles could fly. The federal government had advanced loans for some bridge building projects, but these were in heavily populated metropolitan areas, such as San Francisco Bay and Detroit. There was less likelihood, but still hope, the Public Works Administration (PWA) would loan money for a much larger bridge in a sparsely populated area much farther from anywhere.

To advance the bridge, Democrat law partners U.S. Congressman Prentiss M. Brown and State Representative Edward "Ned" Fenlon staged a series of informational meetings across Michigan in the first months of 1936. The first, held in Hancock, brought the Upper Peninsula Development Bureau (UPDB) squarely behind the project. The public was invited to hear engineer James H. Cissel, the secretary of the Straits Bridge Authority, who discussed the feasibility of the project, and G. Donald Kennedy, the Highway Department's business manager. The second meeting, held a month later in Petoskey, created a "hands across the Straits" program of bridge backers on both sides of the waterway. At the luncheon, a favorable report from federal engineers was read and representatives of at least 15 county "bridge associations" shared with the Bridge Authority their desire to go ahead with the unfinanced project.

But financing or not, a bridge would take several years to build, and traffic volumes in 1935 had grown beyond anything imaginable just a decade before. To increase holding areas in St. Ignace, the Highway Department began negotiations with C. C. Eby to purchase his Birchwood Arbor tourist shop just south of the ferry dock. The deed was transferred at the end of February, but Eby retained the right to operate through one more hunting season. Afterward, he would move or raze the building and relocate the curio shop to a store at the corner of Front (now State) and Truckey streets.

Despite very cold weather, representatives of the U.S. Lighthouse Service visited the Straits to take soundings at North Graham Shoal. Congressman Brown had been pushing for a permanent light to mark the shallow water there. Both state and railway ferry officials supported the request.

In mid-April, Highway Commissioner Murray Van Wagoner called a statewide tourism conference in St. Ignace to discuss ways to improve tourist services and to seek recommendations for improving ferry service at the Straits. Speaking directly to attending ferry workers, the commissioner said, "I cannot urge too strongly the quality of courtesy to the traveling public upon you men who are in charge of those ferries, a vital function of the department. You are a direct representative of your state government in carrying out your duties. The customer is always right and you are selling Michigan to most of the passengers who use the ferries."

More than 200 people heard his assistant, G. Donald Kennedy, talk about the possibility of chartering the Sainte Marie (II) to assist with heavy traffic days. Kennedy and Ferry Supt. E. H. Doner conferred with the Mackinac Transportation Company's Capt. Gerald Stufflebeam and submitted contracts for the charter. Attendees speculated that if the charter went through, the Sainte Marie (II) might even be repainted white, to match the rest of the state boats.

Instead, Van Wagoner announced the ship would be used for freight-only runs, alleviating the waits suffered by truckers and bus operators. He also showed plans for another $7 million in new highway construction for the region.

UPDB Secretary George Bishop noted the "need to push the Straits solid with concrete and steel," as a major note toward bridge construction. The delegates heartily endorsed a bridge resolution, although almost a third of those in attendance were Straits sailors.

Following the conference, a number of local St. Ignace groups, including the Knights of Columbus Council, also endorsed the proposed bridge. But nobody offered any money.

Meanwhile, state ferry service resumed April 16, when Captain George Loughlin pressed The Straits of Mackinac onto her regular schedule, despite heavy ice in the harbors and on the Straits. By Friday, wind had pushed even heavier ice into the channel, so to assist the auto boat, the Chief Wawatam broke a pathway for her to follow whenever she had truck traffic to take across. Officials felt the railroads charged truckers too much to haul freight on the larger ferry, while there was already a subsidy agreement in place for automobiles, so subsidized autos were loaded on the Chief, while the state boat carried the truck traffic.

"The service to truck traffic is maintained at the express wishes of Commissioner Van Wagoner," Capt. Doner said. "Last week [at the conference], the commissioner stressed the value of state ferry service, and in spite of ice conditions over which we have no control, we're maintaining that service."

Even with the Chief's help on Friday, only one trip was completed. Saturday was a little better, but The Straits got stuck fast on Sunday and had to wait for the Chief to come along and free her. Monday, she still had trouble, following the Chief across with a load of trucks, while the larger boat still carried the cross-straits auto traffic. The ice problems lasted for most of the following week.

By the time the blockade melted, traffic had grown to the point that two boats were needed. On May 1, the Mackinaw City was added, 15 days ahead of schedule. The Sainte Ignace was to be held until July 1, as originally projected. Capt. Doner explained that he wouldn't send out the two small boats to relive the larger one until he was sure the ice would no longer be a problem.

But while the ice problem disappeared, the traffic problem only grew. By the end of May 1936, traffic had increased 24% beyond May 1935 levels. The Straits underwent her annual overhaul in mid-May, relived by the two smaller ships, but returned so all three boats could be used for the "Decoration Day" (Memorial Day) rush.

The third boat wasn't supposed to run until July 1, but it entered service yet again on June 20, as traffic built early, even before the Fourth of July weekend. Michigan schools let out that week, and planners felt many motorists might start their vacations early.

The chartered Sainte Marie (II) was also prepared for service hauling trucks starting July 1. A crew of 46 local men, under Jack Marshall, laid 50,000 feet of lumber on her main deck to raise it up to rail height for rubber-tired traffic. They also installed wooden barricades around projecting equipment that might be hit by truckers driving on and off the boat. The platforms were built in numbered sections, and any of them could be added and removed as needed, should rail cars need to be transported with the truck traffic. The railroad boat was not repainted.

By having a separate truck boat, Capt. Doner explained, more automobiles could be carried more easily on the other ferries, which could run with all their hatches closed. He said using the Sainte Marie was about the same as adding the capacity of two more, smaller boats. The charter was to last until September 9, with the ship making four round trips a day, leaving St. Ignace at 6, 9, noon, and 6. It would leave Mackinaw City an hour and a half later for each return trip.

In State Ferry service, the railroad ferry carried a crew of 30 men. Captain Stufflebeam assigned Captain Charles H. "Paddy" Brown and Chief Engineer L. W. Specht to the job. Stufflebeam transferred First Officer Alec Tromblay to the state boats in exchange, while the highway department provided the balance of the Sainte Marie's crew.

"We'll be able to handle the Straits traffic without difficulty this year with the acquisition of the Sainte Marie," Captain Donor said. He was quickly proved wrong.

Even with all four ferries running on a schedule of "more often than hourly," by July 4, more than 500 autos were backed up on the Mackinaw City causeway. Rather than make so many tourists wait two hours or more, state authorities quickly chartered the Chief Wawatam for the afternoon. Only with all five boats filled to capacity, and running wild, was the crush carried to St. Ignace in a timely manner.

The traffic volume, supporters said, certainly favored construction of a bridge, and the sooner the better. They cited June 1936 figures, which were 24% higher than just one year previous. July's gain was even greater. Traffic increased by fully one third, meaning 45,235 vehicles were transported in that month alone.

With such growth, Commissioner Van Wagoner approached Governor Fitzgerald with plans to build two more boats for the service, using financial aid from the Public Works Administration. He proposed that state-owned ice crusher boats be used to maintain year-around service across the Straits. He asked the chief executive to authorize the highway department to hire a naval architect to draw plans for the two steamers. With the governor's backing, the state administrative board gave approval for the expenditure.

Van Wagoner then applied for the federal money, and said Michigan's share of the cost would be $509,058 for the two new ferries.

Some people thought that if the state could get off so inexpensively, the ferry fares should be lowered again, or removed entirely. The governor conferred with the highway commissioner and convinced Van Wagoner that the state legislature should decided what ferry tolls should be. The two men agreed to leave the "free ferry" proposal up to the 1937 legislature.

The new thought of free fares drew concern from editorial writers, however. While applauding the possibility 5,000 tourists might come to the Upper Peninsula every day for at least two solid months each year, they were concerned that more ferries and increased traffic might cause the Highway Department to move the ferry dock out of St. Ignace. Fearing the "cradle of Michigan" might become just a shell of its former self, one writer warned residents to "assure their self-preservation and the future of their community."

Commissioner Van Wagoner wasted no time moving on the ferry design project. Within a week of receiving the go-ahead, he hired Henry J. Gielot, Inc., naval architects of New York and Michigan, to create the drawings. That firm's vice-president, W. M. Rice, visited the Straits the second week of August to see for himself what type of boat he was to design. He looked over the docks and facilities the ferries used and, accompanied by G. Donald. Kennedy, rode across to see what traffic levels were like in the summer season.

After talking with the designer, Commissioner Van Wagoner narrowed his plans and now projected just one huge boat would be needed to increase capacity by 80%. He envisioned a 225-car behemoth, capable of breaking ice. Such a boat would cost over half a million dollars. Public bids would be taken for construction of the ship just as soon as the plans were completed.

Rice expected to have them done by September 1. The architect envisioned a diesel-powered boat with a cruising speed of about 18 miles per hour. But with the cost approaching $600,000 to $800,000, the size of the ship had to be scaled down to only about 150 cars, instead of the 225 Van Wagoner envisioned. To make the ship more efficient, it would need to be an end-loader, so docks at both sides of the Straits would also have to be modified. Terminals would also have to be dredged, not only for the new boat, but to improve landings for the existing ferries.

That set off alarms about moving the St. Ignace dock again. To reassure citizens, Commissioner Van Wagoner noted his department had not had time to consider any relocation; they were too busy planning the new boat and arranging the present docks to take care of it.

While Rice had inspected both the Chief Wawatam and Sainte Marie (II), he said he would shy away from using a "pumpkin seed" hull design. Rather than follow any particular "ice crushing" construction, the new boat would depend on size and power to push its way through winter conditions. Plans called for 75% of traffic to be handled on the ship's lower deck, while the upper deck would be put in use only for peak loading. The ship would be designed with a 14- foot clearance, the same as all Michigan highway structures. For more maneuverability, the ship would have twin screws and pilothouse control, instead of using telegraphs to signal the engine room, like the older ferries. The commissioner noted, however, that engineers would have to investigate whether special fuel would be available at the Straits before deciding to try to use a diesel power plant in such cold winter weather.

Reporters speculated that, by summer 1937, the St. Ignace waterfront would have a completely different look. They just didn't know what it would be, because the docks couldn't be redesigned until they knew the size of the new ferry. Only certain phases of the construction program were already known by Labor Day 1936: The new boat would be an end-loader, and the state wanted to do away with the elevators used to load the upper deck of the smaller boats.

Although only installed a few years before, the lifts had proved entirely undependable, quite expensive, and very time consuming. Talk about town was that upper deck loading ramps would be constructed for the new boat, and perhaps the old ones as well.

As summer 1936 wound down, the ferry service was again setting records for vehicles carried. August figures were up 13,000 cars over the year before. Labor Day weekend was up even more. Both railroad boats were pressed into service and all five ships ran wild at full capacity, so in three days, 7,901 vehicles were carried. The all-time daily record peaked at 2,932 vehicles that Sunday.

The weekend total was nearly 1,000 cars more than the year before. At times, the waiting southbound traffic stretched up State Street to Maloney Hill. Northbound loadings were as heavy, but the traffic backup was not quite as bad. Officials noted that sometime during the weekend, the 150,000th car of the season was transported. They projected they might carry 200,000 vehicles by the end of the year.

The Labor Day rush finally died down about 8:30 Monday night. The Sainte Marie was turned back to the railroad, her truck carrying duties done for the season. The Straits of Mackinac, under command of Captain Loughlin, was taken out of service, and later in the week left for Detroit for a quick servicing before hunting season. She would return to relieve one of the smaller boats so it could undergo the same work.

While The Straits was in drydock, W. M. Rice completed his plans for the new ice-crusher ferry. The new boat would be 372 feet in length, have 1,500 diesel horsepower, twin electric screw-type steering gear for greater maneuverability, and end loading to speed traffic at the terminals. Estimates still pegged the cost at between $600,000 and $800,000, which the state hoped to get from the Public Works Administration.

Unfortunately, a ruling by the comptroller general clouded the eligibility of the new boat as a PWA project, but Commissioner Van Wagoner said the state intended to press ahead with construction, anyway. The state administrative board authorized construction with state funds. Bids were to be opened October 1, with construction immediately to follow. The state hoped to have the new boat in service by June 1, 1937.

Those plans had to be shelved, however, when only one bid was received by October 1. The state's collective jaw dropped. The bid price was nearly $1 million above planners' estimates. Insult was added to injury: The PWAimmediately rejected the state's ferry funding request.

While shocked officials in Lansing retrenched, the boats at the Straits continued to rack up records. October traffic was up 22.3% to almost 12,000 cars, and more capacity was critically needed. Someone suggested redesigning the new boat under more traditional terms, with less power and not as strong a hull. While it would no longer be an ice-crusher, the new boat could still be used for summer rush periods. The naval architect was sent back to his drawing board.

The ferries at the Straits went back to a three-boat schedule November 1 to prepare for the influx of 1936 hunters. On November 10, the Sainte Marie (II) resumed her wintertime truck schedule with sailings every three hours for commercial users. The same day, the auto boats began running wild, sailing without schedule until the hunting rush ended. The 1936 hunting season, surprisingly, was only about as large as the season in 1935. But the boats were still swamped, with traffic backed up for two miles along the highway on Friday morning. The Chief Wawatam, with her huge capacity, was called into service, and after only a couple trips, had relieved the congestion by noontime.

The state conservation office did try one new innovation in 1936. A temporary two-way radio station was set up on the St. Ignace ferry dock so conservation officials could reach a network of stations across the Upper Peninsula. That way, word of any problems, injuries to hunters, or illegal hunting activities could be quickly spread to conservation officers all across the region.

The year 1936 was not without its political moments, either. Republican Frank Murphy defeated Democrat Frank Fitzgerald for the position of Michigan Governor. Murphy had previously served as Detroit Recorders Court Judge, Mayor of Detroit, and Governor-general of the Philippines, before winning the state governorship in the November election.

Congressman Prentiss M. Brown, Democrat from St. Ignace, had started the year trying to build a bridge across the Straits. He spent much of the summer and early fall trying to bridge the gap between the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. In a hard fought campaign against former Republican Governor Wilbur Brucker, Brown won a new position as junior senator from Michigan in the November elections. He picked up a huge majority of voters in nearly every section of the state, partially because of his name-recognition through the bridge project.

As winter weather descended, Brown made plans to move his office to the other end of the Capitol in Washington. He found the move came more quickly than expected. Rather than wait until January to assume office, outgoing Governor Fitzgerald appointed him to the post in November. Brown would spend two months before his own term began, filling out the unexpired term of his predecessor, who had died in office.

In St. Ignace, Clarence Eby continued his plans to move his curio shop from the Birchwood Arbor building south of the State Dock. Under terms of the sales agreement, he had until the end of hunting season to conclude his business. But even before the last hunters trailed south, Eby sold off parts of the building for use elsewhere. Adam McGregor, Shell dealer from Chippewa, bought part of it, primarily for the show windows. Joseph Perry, Sedge Leveille, and Henry Smith tore down the dance hall portion at the rear for the lumber, particularly the wood of the dance floor. Ed Cousineau obtained the landscape and wildlife murals, painted by Ore Greenless, from the walls for reuse in the new Woodmen of the World hall under construction on his property. Eby, himself, went ahead with plans to move the curio sales shop to the Mulcrone building, site of the former post office.

Meanwhile, the state was noncommittal about how the land would be used, since without definite plans to build the new boat, dock expansion was now also in limbo.

There was even speculation that the Sainte Marie (II) might not be chartered. When the Mackinaw City and Sainte Ignace were laid up for the season at the end of November, the railroad ferry was also tied to her usual winter berth at the Merchandise Dock. Observers felt that would only be a temporary condition, as motorists had come to expect year-around service from the Highway Department. What better idea, the thought went, than to build a nonice crusher for summer use, and use the railroad boat in the winter?

Apparently, the state agreed. In early December, The Straits of Mackinac found more and more ice on the crossing. G. Donald Kennedy announced a new threeyear lease agreement with the Mackinac Transportation Company. The state would pay $200 a day, or $27,400 a season to lease the Sainte Marie (II) full time between December 15 and April 30. The steamer would make five round trips a day, one more than called for in the former charter of the Chief Wawatam. Best of all, the Sainte Marie (II) would be dedicated solely to rubber-tired traffic, which would not have to wait for, or compete with, railroad cars. Sailings would leave St. Ignace at 5:30, 9:30, noon, 3, and 6 each day. Departures from Mackinaw City would be 90 minutes later.

State officials characterized the agreement as a good bargain. In 1935, it had cost $26,030 to charter the Chief, and motorists got two fewer trips each day.

As the navigation season wound down, officials tallied up the results for the year. The ferries had experienced the best season in their history. More than 200,000 cars and 350,000 passengers had been carried, 23% above the previous year. While receipts were still way below the banner years before the Depression and the Depression-era fare cut, they still were far above 1935 levels. Most impressively, bus travel on the ferries was up 179%.

"The State Ferry service at the Straits is becoming more and more important," Commissioner Van Wagoner said. "It is the link that binds together the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. The development of the tourist industry, especially, has placed a new emphasis on the necessity for adequate and efficient service at the Straits. Nearly all tourists include a trip across the Straits in a vacation journey across Michigan. So we consider our efforts to improve the service as primarily a tourist service."

That assessment might not have set well with Senator Brown. At a testimonial and "victory" dinner at the Sault Ste. Marie armory in mid-December, an audience of more than a thousand supporters heard the Senator ask Michigan to spend $40,000 to make another survey in preparation for building a bridge. His bridge proposals were picking up support. By the end of the year, more than 120 sizable Michigan organizations, many of which were downstate, had announced their support of a bridge at Mackinac. At a bridge conference December 17 in Detroit, speakers called for coordinated action in the bridge movement. Even some shipping companies, which initially opposed a bridge, were at least now "of a neutral mind."

Commissioner Van Wagoner asserted another survey might not be needed. He noted University of Michigan Prof. James Cissel had already proved the $32,4000,000 project was feasible from both engineering and economic standpoints, while he was working for the Bridge Authority. The Highway Department had already given generously of its engineering services in support of the bridge. But, in the first notes of a theme that would echo for the next two decades, Van Wagoner insisted that no financing method be used that would penalize highway development in the rest of the state. He cited the improvement of ferry service as a more immediate need.

Next week: Auto Ferries in Training (Part 1)

Copyright 2007 by Les Bagley. All rights reserved.