New Signs To Explain Waterfront Landscape
St. Ignace
By Karen Gould

Four new signs will interpret the waterfront view for those strolling along the boardwalk in St. Ignace this summer. One of the signs will explain the four round moorings that sit on the horizon (at right) in Moran Bay. The moorings once served tankers that carried jet fuel, which was used at the former Kincheloe Air Force Base in Kinross. Now gone, shoreline fuel storage tanks sat near the Mill Slip, shown on the left. Mackinac Island is seen in the distance to the right of the moorings.

Four new signs designed to interpret the history of the St. Ignace waterfront landscape are finished and will be installed this spring. The signs answer questions often asked by visitors, said Deb Evashevski, Downtown Development Authority (DDA) director, who spearheaded the project the DDA board began discussing last year.

Authority members saw the completed signs during their Friday, December 8, meeting.

Two of the signs will be placed on posts near the boardwalk, with one at Kiwanis Beach and the other north of the city marina. Two other signs will be positioned on the boardwalk railing. The boardwalk winds along more than 6,000 feet of Lake Huron shoreline within the city.

The north end of the walkway begins near Kiwanis Beach and takes a path traveling along the waterfront onto the Railroad Dock that once served as a mooring for the Chief Wawatam ferry. The wooden walkway ends at Wawatam Lighthouse at the end of the dock.

The signs, said Mrs. Evashevski, offer an interpretation of the view and the history of the landscape.

The signs are entitled "The Chief Dock," "Mooring Facilities," "William H. Barnum," and "What's in the Water."

The Chief Dock sign, which will be attached to the boardwalk, offers a brief history of the handfired, coal burning Chief Wawatam railroad ferry that once transported train cars between St. Ignace and Mackinaw City. The 338-foot ferry began traveling across the Straits in 1911. The sign explains the ship's duty and the elevator that remains at the dock today. The elevator, which the city would like to preserve, was used to level the apron of the dock to meet the deck of the ship to allow the vessel to be loaded and unloaded. The ship ended service in 1984, and now is owned by Purvis Marine of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and serves as a barge on the Great Lakes.

The Mooring Facilities sign also will be attached to the boardwalk and explains the four mooring dolphins that sit just offshore. The large wooden cylinders were built in 1957 and were used by Great Lakes tanker ships to unload cargos of jet fuel.

An underwater pipeline that traveled from the moorings to St. Ignace transported the fuel to above-ground onshore storage tanks near the Mill Slip. The tanks have since been removed.

Fuel from the storage tanks then was piped into tanker trucks, which delivered the jet fuel to the now closed Kincheloe Air Force Base in Kinross, about 40 miles north of St. Ignace. The base, which was closed in 1977, was used as a refueling area for Alaska-bound aircraft and it served as a defense base for the locks in Sault Ste. Marie.

The William H. Barnum sign will be mounted to a post north of the city marina, near the rudder and buoy that are on display. Once marking shallow Lake Huron waters, the North Graham Shoal Buoy has since been replaced. Known as a large nun buoy since it is 30 feet in length, this buoy type was discontinued in 1899.

On the shore near the buoy is the rudder from the shipwreck of the William H. Barnum. The 218- foot wooden steamer sank April 3, 1894, when it was cut open by ice in the Straits.

The vessel, which was carrying corn, now is an underwater preserve between Bois Blanc Island and the shore southeast of Mackinaw City.

The fourth sign will be positioned on a post near Kiwanis Beach and explains why tree bark continues to wash ashore after bayside sawmills have long left the area.

During their peak from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, commercial sawmills lined Moran Bay. Logs were corralled in the bay and chained together awaiting processing at the mills.

A combination of wave action and the rubbing of chains on the wood resulted in bark being shredded from logs and sinking to the bottom of the bay. Today, pieces of the bark continue to wash up onto the shore.

The signs, said Mrs. Evashevski, which were made by Sam Staffan of Mackinaw Art and Sign in Mackinaw City, will be installed when warmer weather arrives this spring.