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The Badger docked in Manitowoc
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
On Monday, my friend Dave and I decided to take our kids on a “mini cruise” on the S.S. Badger. A mini cruise is a one-day trip over to Manitowoc and back. Our wives both had work obligations and we decided it was a great treat for the kids before they return to school. Whether you have kids with you or not, I would highly recommend doing this. It’s a great way to disconnect for a day. It’s also clearly a popular activity as there were at least two other groups of people onboard who were doing the same.
On board the kids immediately discovered the breakfast prior to our 9 a.m. departure. We had to then watch the last of the vehicle loading (including the three vehicles that arrived five minutes before departure) and the closing of the seagate as we moved away from the dock. Then, it was to the bow to wave to those on shore as we passed the piers. The kids entertained themselves in the arcade for awhile, checked out the movie in the theater and proceeded to drain my checking account with lots of goodies (point exaggerated for literary license).
We arrived at Manitowoc just before noon Central Daylight Time and made our way off the ship and walking the six blocks to Beerntsen’s Confectionary for some ice cream, a seven minute walk from the ship. After 30 minutes at the ice cream shop we made our way back to the dock, with plenty of time before its 2 p.m. sailing (CDT). The kids joked that we came all the way to Wisconsin so we could have ice cream (but, if you’ve ever been to Beernsten’s, you know it’s worth the trip).
Back on board and we left promptly on time.
This time the kids again enjoyed the movie and participated in the famous Badger Bingo.
In the meantime, I spent the trip getting some much needed writing done. I have recently begun doing in-depth historical research on the Lake Michigan carferries, with a perspective that has never been told in a comprehensive way. Spending eight hours on the Badger was the perfect way to provide some inspiration.
Editor’s Note: You’ll have to wait and see what I have been working on, but it’s an ambitious project.
It’s fairly easy to say that the carferries and the railroad, in some way, impacted most people’s lives in Mason County throughout most of the 20th century. I once heard a statistic that during the early- to mid-20th century about 5 percent of the population of Mason County worked for the Pere Marquette Railway and later C&O. Even if you didn’t have a relative working on the railroad, on the boats, or on the docks, you likely either rode on one of the ships or, at least, watched a carferry come and go.
My grandmother would tell me that she and her friends would hop on the Badger or Spartan and take the Milwaukee run, spending the day there and back playing cards. A interviewed a woman a few years ago who told me how she and her brother, as children, would get on one of the carferries and travel to Milwaukee — by themselves — where they would stay with their grandparents for the summer.
View of Manitowoc from the air
As a kid, in the 70s, I remember riding on each of the three remaining ships, the City of Midland 41, the Spartan and the Badger. As a young reporter, I was sent to Grand Rapids to help cover the bankruptcy case in federal court that decided the fate and creation of Lake Michigan Carferry Service in the early ’90s, saving Ludington’s legacy. I was there the day the Badger sailed again as a automobile/truck and passenger service (which continues over 30 years later). I had the honor for many years to be one of the official photographers of LMC, riding onboard the Badger in the early 2000s creating images for the company.
Now, as a director at the Mason County Historical Society, and editor-in-chief of Mason County Press, I get to continue my passion of telling the history of the carferries.
I love being able to share that passion with my children. My wife, Becky, and I took our kids on the Badger for their first trip last summer. They had a blast and were equally excited to go back again this year. Someday they’ll be able to tell their carferry stories like so many of the rest of us do.
If you want to continue your carferry stories, you still have time. The Badger sails until Oct. 6. Find out more here.
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