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Denny, National Gypsum owns both the dock at Port Gypsum and the plant in Waukegon. US Gypsum's dock was called Port Alabaster. Their mine is very much still active but all product goes out by truck now. A third company, Lime and Gypsum Products is also selling gypsum from the area. They are located...

The US Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors publication "Transportation on the Great Lakes: Series 1" (which was published in at least three editions-1926, 1930 and 1937) has data on Lake Superior ore shipments back to 1855. Although that is not the entire Great Lakes, I believe that ...

Canadian National has been affiliated with the ferry Georges Alexandre Lebel since about 1975 but the Great Lakes Fleet colors were only applied about 7 years ago. Prior to that it had a dark blue hull, white cabins, and green lettering. Ironically the ship was initially operated by a company affili...

Strictly a guess, but many movable highway bridges use railroad crossing gate equipment to operate their gates, lights and bells. And more and more states are allowing railroad crossings to sound their bells only when the gates are going down. The bells then turn off and don't sound for the remainin...

Just to confuse matters more, the July/August Telescope (page 100) implies that the Lee Tregurtha sailed from the "Ford Basin" (I assume River Rouge) to Fraser (Superior) under the its new name. I assume this was a non-revenue run done sometime in March or April. https://images.maritimehis...

According to this article, it sounds like an opportunity came up which changed Doornekamp Lines plans a bit. They had purchased the small containership Peyton Lynn C. for their proposed Halifax to Picton service. But shortly after the vessel's purchase, Spliethoff offered to charter the vessel long ...

Can't answer that question. But the State of Michigan seems to have three job categories that are constantly being advertised: 1) elevator inspectors 2) traffic signal electricians (They want a licensed electrician with a commercial drivers license willing to be on call 24/7) 3) boiler inspectors (w...

That would be J and K Steamboat Company of Grand Ledge. https://www.michiganprincess.com/Our-Boats They currently have three riverboats in service: the Michigan Princess on the Grand River in Lansing, the Grand Princess based out of Grand Ledge (but truck-able to other inland water locations) and th...

Of course I can't seem to find any photos right now, but in the past have seen photos of several large winches at the yard. Probably salvaged towing winches from tugs. The lines are often run through multiple blocks to increase their pulling power, and they are tied to ground anchors behind the winc...

This article posted today states that they still hope to meet that schedule: https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/ ... ay-5295949

I ran across this unidentified photo in the online digital collections of the Holland (Michigan) museum. It shows to railroad car ferries and I'm almost certain it was taken in Windsor, Ontario. The layout of the tracks and adjacent street make me think it is either the Canadian Pacific or Michigan ...

Denny, Just in case you haven't seen the good news, another volunteer stepped in to continue the port reports. For now at least.

To my knowledge DeTour never had a railroad, common carrier or otherwise. James Hannum's book In the Pines - Volume III (An atlas of logging railroads in the UP) shows the closest logging railroad networks out one that worked out of Raber and one on the east end of Drummond Island. And of course the...

McKeil has built up a pretty substantial fleet in the past few years. Have they taken away a significant amount of grain tonnage from LLT? McKeil ships are frequently in Thunder Bay, but I haven't been paying attention to what they are hauling and their destinations.

It could be the Michipicoten, which has seen a fair amount of deviation from her regular Soo Express run in recent seasons due to the Algoma Steel contract and demand being a little different. And this haul (as well as the demand for coal at the Soo) is likely to go away entirely once Algoma Steel ...

I believe McKeil's barge Huron Spirit has a similar, if less robust system that dates back to its days hauling salt from Mexico to San Diego. One trip it might be carrying a bulk commodity to be unloaded via the boom, the next steel coils stored on the flat deck. https://youtu.be/SWquX8kCzS8?t=130

Per AIS, it looks like the Alpena left Alpena tonight with a destination showing as Whitefish, which is likely their Whitefish terminal near Little Current. Looks like Bristol Bay spent the day breaking ice from Georgian Bay to the terminal. Ice charts still show fairly substantial ice coverage in t...

I know nothing about such things, but towing a big ship with a little tugboat like that looks pretty sketchy. How do you control a huge ship like that in the wind and ice and currents without you and your tugboat ending up somehow crushed like a grape? The Beverly MI is hardly a small tug. If I'm n...

Their schedule shows that they will be doing nighttime sailings from June 10 to Sept 5 this year. But during that time frame most rooms are booked by the general public and would not be available for a group function. The Boatnerd Badger gatherings have in the past been done outside of that window, ...

I just saw this thread (Its now March). I was told several months ago (on a Facebook page) that the assets of Bearco Marine are still around. The current owner had to retire (which lead to closure) and is trying to sell the company. Ideally to someone who would take it over and continue the product ...