Mackinaw To Salute Island on Final Trip, June 21
Tickets Available For Trip, Donations Sought To Support New Mackinaw Maritime Museum in Mackinaw City
By Karen Gould

Beth Newton, communications officer for the decommissioned Mackinaw, won a shipboard contest and will stand at the helm of the cutter along with Captain Joseph McGuiness as she sails into her new dock site in Mackinaw City Wednesday, June 21. The ship will become the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum and will sail from her homeport of Cheboygan to her new mooring at the former railroad dock.

Wednesday, June 21, the old Coast Guard icebreaker Mackinaw will leave Cheboygan, her home for the last 62 years, and sail to Mackinaw City, where she will become a floating museum. During the 2.5-hour trip, she will swing up through the north channel between Mackinac and Round islands to sound a final salute, then pass under the Mackinac Bridge for a farewell salute there, too.

At Mackinaw City, the boat will be stripped of the sensitive and unneeded equipment belonging to the Coast Guard and then on Friday, June 30, she will be turned over to the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum, the group that saved her for the Straits of Mackinac and now must raise millions of dollars to keep her here.

"The work has just started," said Bill Shepler, a member of the museum committee and owner of the old railroad dock in Mackinaw City where Mackinaw will be moored. The group, he said, needs to raise "a lot of money," more than its original estimate of $3.5 million. The alternative was to see the ship sail to a scrap yard at Baltimore.

The Mackinaw's Coast Guard crew will sail the ship on its final voyage, and officers' names were placed in a hat to determine who would be at the helm beside the ship's captain, Joseph McGuiness, during the memorable event. Communications Officer Beth Newton won the draw and sees the journey as bittersweet.

"It's going to be sad to see her go," she said.

Mr. Shepler said the committee continues to plan the last trip. It has invited a fly-over by the Traverse City Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter and an escort by Mackinac Island ferry boats.

The public can sail on the trip from Cheboygan to Mackinaw City. There are 500 tickets available, said Mr. Shepler, with donations ($200 suggested) supporting the ship's care and development of the museum. Sailing time is 1 p.m.

To donate to the museum or to obtain more information about the cruise, people can contact Mackinaw Area Visitors Bureau at (231) 436-5664.