Passenger Boats in Port Saugatuck

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Saugatuck Douglas Historical Society

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Name/Title

Passenger Boats in Port Saugatuck

Entry/Object ID

2023.50.53

Scope and Content

Passenger Boats in Port Saugatuck by Kit Lane --- The arrival of the French-registered cruise vessel Le Levant (the sunrise) in Saugatuck June 21, 1999, has been hailed as the "return" of "cruise liners" to Saugatuck, but this may be misleading. In earlier days there were many boats that carried passengers and stopped at Saugatuck. The first were sailing vessels that would carry passengers when asked. In 1859 the 165 foot steamship Huron under charter to Albert E. Goodrich and George C. Drew, planned a regular route on the east shore of Lake Michigan. Three times a week the Huron would travel from Chicago to Muskegon; on Saturdays, according to an early ad, the vessel would "enter the port at the mouth of the Kalamazoo river." On August 1, I868, the Ira Chaffee, a 127-foot steamer built in Allegan began regular trips to Chicago. Afterwards the work was taken up by many different boats, most carrying both freight and passengers including George P. Heath, R. C. Brittain, Kalamazoo, Saugatuck, J. S. Seaverns and A. B. Taylor, Pilgrim, Bon Ami and Bon Voyage of the Rogers and Bird Line. By 1900 the summer resort trade was booming and there was an effort to get the Graham & Morton line, that had been calling at Holland for many years to stop in Saugatuck, but to no avail. From 1909 to 1913 the Crawford Transportation Co. made daily trips from Chicago with the H. W. Williams (later the Tennessee) and other boats. In 1914 the Indiana Transportation Co. took up the work with the United States ending service abruptly when the Eastland went over in Chicago harbor threatening law suits. In 1922 Graham & Morton finally succumbed to public demand and began calling at Saugatuck and Douglas during the summer and into fruit season. In honor of the occasion they named one of their boats the City of Saugatuck, but it was the smaller City of St. Joseph that usually made the trip. In 1924 they were bought out by the Goodrich Transportation Co. which continued to call at Saugatuck until the end of the season of 1929. As near as can be determined the Goodrich boat, probably the City of St. Joseph, which left Labor Day weekend of 1929 is the last passenger boat to call at Saugatuck. The only real cruise boats (boats that did not just go from destination to destination, but called at several ports) that visited the area would have been the North American and the South American which wintered in Saugatuck harbor 1914 to 1924. Although the first cruise sometimes originated from Saugatuck it was not a regular port of call. And then the Le Levant arrived in June. - Kit Lane

Context

Summary of passenger service to Saugatuck

Collection

SDHS NL Inserts, Nautical, Transportation: water

Cataloged By

Winthers, Sally

Acquisition

Accession

2023.50

Acquisition Method

Found in Collection

Notes

SDHS Newsletter insert pages 118

Location

* Untyped Location

Digital data in CatalogIt

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Lane, Kit 1939-2024, Le Levant (ship), Ira Chaffee (ship) 1867, George P. Heath (ship), R.C. Brittain (ship), Kalamazoo (ship) 1888-1892, Saugatuck (ship) 1887, J.S. Seaverns (ship) 1800, A.B. Taylor (ship) 1884 / Ottawa 1902-1910, Pilgrim (ship) 1888, Bon Ami (ship) 1894 / Northshore 1920-1945, Bon Voyage (ship) 1891, Rogers & Bird Shipyard/Line, Graham & Morton Transportation Co. 1874-1950, Crawford Transportation Company, H.W. Williams (ship), Tennessee (ship), Indiana Transportation Company, United States (ship) 1909-1946, City of Saugatuck (ship), North American (ship), South American (ship)

General Notes

Note

This information was OCR text scanned from SDHS newsletter supplements. A binder of original paper copies is catalog item 2023.50.01

Create Date

November 11, 2023

Update Date

November 18, 2023