Fifty Years for the Huron, Second Generation Ferry
A Look at History
By Frank Straus

December has come to the Straits of Mackinac. In the busy days of summer, three boat lines speed back and forth to Mackinac Island from two mainland ports. But when we hang out our wreaths and string our lights in the snowy December air, over the harbors of St. Ignace and Mackinac Island sounds the air horn of only one boat offering continued passenger service: the Arnold Line’s M/S Huron.

The Huron , which celebrated its 50th birthday this year, is one of Arnold Line’s second generation of ferryboats. In its first generation, the years before World War II, Arnold Transit Company operated coal-fired steamboats in the Straits of Mackinac. Arnold Line’s second generation, which includes the Huron , were the diesel-powered motor vessels that served as the backbone of the line from the 1950s into the 1980s. Catamarans, the boxy speedboats that operate in warmer weather, are the Arnold Line’s third generation.

As their name makes clear, the diesel engine was invented in Germany by engineer Rudolf Diesel. Strangely enough, during World War II, many more diesels were manufactured and used in the United States than in Germany, largely because of America’s leading role in the global production of crude oil in those days. It was found that the diesel engine, like its cousin the gasoline engine, was exceptionally reliable and able to produce heavy mechanical power with relatively few employee operators. The Arnold Line’s old favorite, the Algomah II , had required a full-time crew of 20 men to run it. The diesel boats require less than 10 people; the catamarans need four people.

The mighty Huron.

This increase in employee productivity allowed the Arnold Line and its postwar competitors, such as the former Straits Line, to keep their costs down. The Huron and her sister boats did not offer a fast ride to and from Mackinac Island, but the fares were low. The United States continued to be the largest producer of crude oil in the world and the price of diesel fuel was reasonable by today’s standards. A 1958 schedule printed by the Arnold Line shows the Huron together with many of her sister motor vessels in service from Mackinaw City and St. Ignace to Mackinac Island. The round-trip fare from Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island was only $1.90, and the two-way fare from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island was only $1.65. (Readers should keep in mind that in 1958 each quarter was made out of silver.)

Leroy Allers, Arnold Transit captain in the 1950s and 1960s, peers from the pilot house of the Huron in this Otto Lang photograph. (Photograph courtesy of Tom Pfeiffelmann)

With the building and opening in 1957 of the Mackinac Bridge, the startup of the historical restoration program at Fort Mackinac, and significant Moral Re-Armament activity at Mission Point, passenger traffic boomed in the 1950s and 60s. There was plenty of work for the Huron and her sister vessels.

Up into the 1990s, the Arnold Line was one of the last full-service “package-freight” lines on the Great Lakes. “Package freight” refers to the old break-bulk system in which freight bound for one port or another was broken down into its individual packages for loading and unloading. Many of the Great Lakes’ mightiest names, such as the Anchor Line, the Goodrich Line, Graham & Morton, and the Detroit & Cleveland, operated “package freight” vessels that carried both freight in the hold and passengers on upper decks.

The Huron commingles diesel-engine technology with the old package-freight paradigm. The boat contains a spacious, beamy lower deck from which freight can be carried on and off on individually rolled hand-trucks or carts. My family always used the Arnold Line when I was a boy, and we would carefully plan how to unload our heavily laden station wagon as it approached Mackinaw City or St. Ignace at the end of the long drive toward the Straits of Mackinac.

“Someone has to go get a truck,” Mom would say, referring to those hand-trucks.

The Huron also carried commercial shipments of foodstuffs and hospitality supplies from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island for many years. Starting in the 1990s, much of Mackinac Island’s freight needs are taken care of by barge. One unusual item of freight reflects Mackinac Island’s unique culture and economy. Live horses still go back and forth on the Huron . The vessel’s spacious and well-ventilated lower deck offers the animals a safe and friendly way to travel over the water.

At the end of the 1960 summer season, with the retirement of the Algomah II , the Arnold Line waved good-bye to its steamboat era. Today, in the 2000s, the role of the second-generation motor vessels to the Arnold Line has somewhat diminished. The line no longer routinely runs motor vessels back and forth to its dock in Mackinaw City. Motor vessels, renamed “classic ferries,” go back and forth frequently in summer from St. Ignace to Mackinaw City, offering ferryboat riders a 30-minute ride and a graceful way to appreciate the beauties of the Straits of Mackinac. And the Huron , with its heated cabin, is a necessity for those Mackinac Islanders and visitors traveling to or from the Island in December.

At some point in this winter of 2005-06, it is likely that the Huron will be tied up to its dock. Ice is the great enemy of boats, and as the waters get colder, it will form once again in the Straits of Mackinac. The winter will pass, and the ice will melt. When spring comes, the welcome sound of the Huron’s air horn will sound once again over the waters of the lake whose name it bears.