Tall ship, lighthouses highlight Michigan visit
The original tall ship Friends Good Will is long gone, burned by the British at the end of the War of 1812 after it was trapped in winter’s ice outside Buffalo in Lake Erie.
But nautical history buffs — and others — can sail on a replica of this 102foot-long, square-rigged topsail sloop from its home at the Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven out into Lake Michigan until the end of September.
My teenagers — Maddie, 17, and Anders, 15 — and I climbed aboard on a recent warm June afternoon and learned about the short and violent life of this ship and even got to help raise her sails. It was all part of a five-day road and water visit along southwest Michigan’s sandy shores —which were once dubbed the “Riviera of the Midwest.”
Our adventure began in Milwaukee, where we boarded the Lake Express high-speed ferry for a 2.5-hour crossing that took us straight across Lake Michigan to Muskegon, avoiding Chicago’s often-clogged freeways. I was prepared with anti-seasick pills, but fortunately never needed them because the trip was smooth.
Once in Muskegon, we bunked at the Shoreline Inn, strolled the shore of Muskegon Lake and dined on tasty bruschetta, sushi and seafood rolls at the Lake House Waterfront Grille overlooking scores of pleasure craft at the neighboring marina.
The next morning, we set off on foot just half-a-dozen blocks to the city’s historic district and toured the beautifully restored Queen Anne mansions of timber barons Charles H. Hackley and Thomas Hume. The pair lived side-byside on West Webster Avenue in the late 1800s, when Muskegon had more than 50 lumber mills. Their former homes include ornate woodcarvings, stenciling, stained-glass windows and period furnishing.
The historic district also includes a 1920s fire barn — complete with a 1923 American LaFrance Pumper — the Depression-era Scolnik House and the Lakeshore Museum Center. Also worth visiting is the Heritage Park at Hilt’s Landing, which is 20 minutes north of downtown Muskegon.
If you have an interest in submarines, it’s worth a stop at USS Silversides Museum to tour what was one of the most deadly subs in the Pacific Theater of World War II, with 23 confirmed sinkings. The museum is also home to the Prohibition-era Coast Guard Cutter McClane, which was commissioned in 1927 to hunt rumrunners and bootleggers.
We also spent some time hiking and watched the sunset at Pere Marquette Park — which is near the sub museum and the Muskegon Channel — before heading south about 70 miles to St. Joseph.
St. Joseph has long been a favorite vacation spot for residents of Chicago and Indiana, who came north by car, boat and rail to enjoy its beaches and resorts. It was also home to popular amusement park Silver Beach, which operated from 1891 to 1971.
Amtrak still stops in St. Joseph twice a day on its run from Chicago to Detroit and back. Part of the train depot has been converted into Silver Beach Pizza, where we dined one evening on a yummy Margherita pizza. We also played volleyball on the beach the next day, strolled the community’s attractive downtown, kayaked on the Paw Paw River and checked out the carousel in the Silver Beach Center, only a short distance from the old amusement park.
Loving the lighthouses
The highlight of the St. Joseph stop, though, was touring the restored inner and outer lighthouses on the north pier at Tiscornia Park. The structures were decommissioned in 2005, and restoration was completed last year after $2 million was raised from donors.
The outer, smaller building isn’t open to the public, but we were able to go inside the inner lighthouse and climb the spiral stairs — under the watchful eyes of a docent — to the lantern deck where a large Fresnel lens was once located. Tours are offered through the St. Joseph Heritage Museum on Fridays and Saturdays from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
We saved the best of our trip for last when we drove 25 miles north to South Haven, which also had dozens of resorts. It was once called the “Catskills of the Midwest,” historians say, because it was so popular with Chicago’s Jewish residents from 1910 to the 1960s.
Southwest Michigan’s bountiful sand not only makes for great beaches, but also mixes well with good old dirt to produce delicious apples, blueberries, grapes, peaches, herbs and more. So we stopped in at the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum, birthplace of the man who’s considered the father of American horticulture. His 1915 book, “The Holy Earth: Toward a New Environmental Ethic,” deeply influenced Wisconsin’s Aldo Leopold, who penned the seminal “A Sand County Almanac.”
We’d come for the water though, so made a detour to the South Haven Center for the Arts, where we enjoyed a special show dealing with mermaids. Then it was on to the Black River, not far from the Michigan Maritime Museum, where we paddled kayaks upstream on the slowly moving river past more than a thousand boats in myriad marinas.
The maritime museum currently has an exhibit that tells the story of the Great Lakes in World War II. It also has several Coast Guard rescue boats and several pleasure vessels for exploring and outings. But the prize of the museum is the Friends Good Will, a tall ship with 2,800 square feet of sail when fully unfurled. Jim Jackson, a volunteer deckhand dressed in early 1800s sailor garb, told us the short-lived sloop was built as a commercial vessel in 1811 and carried cargo on the Great Lakes.
In 1812, on the way back from Chicago, she was captured by the English at Fort Mackinac in Lake Huron, outfitted with heavy guns and turned into a warship. She was used the next year in the Battle of Lake Erie, where Americans — led by Admiral Matthew Perry — recaptured her. When the Brits raided and burned Buffalo in December, 1813, they also torched Friends Good Will.
The replica tall ship was launched in 2004, complete with an engine. It’s been used as a historical training vessel and has taken thousands of guests out on the water since then.
Under Jackson’s direction, we helped the crew hoist the mainsail as we exited the Black River channel leading into Lake Michigan. Minutes later, we pulled on halyards to raise the smaller, forward sails.
For the next 90 minutes, we cruised along the shore under gentle winds, listening to tales of lake-faring life in the 1800s. We also climbed below decks to see where cargo was stored, the crew slept and meals were prepared.
As we headed back in to port, scores of people on the channel breakwater waved at the ship, smiling and wishing, I’m sure, that they were on board.