Name/Title
Uncle Sam Douglas-Saugatuck FerryEntry/Object ID
2021.18.71Description
B/W image of a canopied motor launch tied up at the grassy dock. The ferry is loaded with ten people dressed in early 1900s-style clothingPhotograph Details
Type of Photograph
Print, photographSubject Person or Organization
Uncle Sam (boat)Context
Photo appeared on page 197 of Kit Lane's 1993 book "Built on the Banks of the Kalamazoo" with the text:
"While his riverboat A.R. Heath continued the upriver run in the spring of 1903, Cal Heath built a gasoline launch to run on Kalamazoo Lake. The March 27, 1903 newspaper noted that the vessel was "almost finished and will be a beauty when completed." She was launched shortly afterwards and named the Uncle Sam. In the spring of 1903 the draw span of the bridge across the Kalamazoo River between Saugatuck and Douglas was replaced with a steel swing bridge. To accomplish this work the bridge was closed from May until mid August. To supplement the ferry which transported passengers and teams across the Kalamazoo River from the foot of Mary Street, the township financed a ferry to run from the foot of Mason Street in Saugatuck to the basket factory dock in Douglas. This route was for passengers only and was supplied by the Uncle Sam.
When the bridge reopened on August 21 there was some attempt to keep the ferry running, but the downtown Saugatuck to downtown Douglas run was only profitable on Sundays when passengers from Saugatuck liked to take a boat to St. Peter's Catholic Church, a short distance from the basket factory docks. So the Uncle Sam began trying other routes. In 1905 and 1906, when the new river mouth was under construction, it was popular for parties to hire a boat to go out and watch the hydraulic dredge in action. For a time Elihu Eaton used the Uncle Sam as a ferry between downtown Saugatuck and the west shore of Kalamazoo Lake, a route which was especially popular among cottagers on the lakeshore to the south. But in 1906 the newspaper announced that the Bird Boat Co. had contracted to build him a new boat to replace the Uncle Sam.
In 1904 Cal Heath left for the south in the hopes that he could improve his failing health. There is no further record of the Uncle Sam and the vessel was never documented. It is possible that the Uncle Sam is in some way related to the American Eagle (see above). Doc Anderson Heath and Cal Heath were brothers, and the American Eagle comes on the rolls about the time Cal left for the south, and the Uncle Sam ceased work under that name in Saugatuck."
On page 201, Lane notes that the "Uncle Sam" was replaced by the larger gas screw propeller "Douglas" launched in 1905Collection
Nautical, Transportation: water, 1840 ShipbuildingCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2021.18Source or Donor
Lane, Kit, familyRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Heath, Clarence "Cal"Create Date
March 31, 2025Update Date
April 9, 2025
