As American railroads built westward, they eventually acquired trackage through the state of Michigan. With a width of 70-100 miles, the lake itself was an impediment preventing direct connections with the Twin Cities and other western industrial centers. Break-bulk passenger steamers provided the original ferry link, necessitating transshipment of cargo from the trains to the ship, and back from the ship to trains on the other side of the lake. It was to reduce the resulting expenditure in time and labor that the original cross-lake railroad car ferries were introduced. In the 1920's O.M. Reif Boathouse at Cedarville, MI, the Les Cheneaux Maritime Museum displays of vintage boats, marine artifacts, antique outboard motors, historic photos of area boating, and a gift shop.
Large addition including a boat building shop is under construction.
The schooner Madelineled a long and varied career on northern Lake Michigan. For the most part she served her owners as a trading schooner, but she also served briefly as a lightship and later became the first private school in the Grand Traverse region. The original Madeline was built in Fairport, Ohio, in the winter of 1844-45, undoubtedly for owners at Mackinac Island and in her early days she carried a fancy scroll figurehead. The island was her home for the first seventeen years of her existence where, in winter, served as a public school. If your interest is the history of the Great Lakes and its maritime heritage, then this is one place you will want to visit.