Booms and Busts of the Great Lakes and Manitou Passage

Between 1878 and 1898, 6000 vessels wrecked in the great lakes. 1000 of those wrecks were total losses—the loss of the ship, its cargo, and everyone on board. In the Manitou Passage alone, the 16-mile channel between the Lake Michigan shoreline and the North and South Manitou Islands, there were hundreds of shipwrecks.

Credit: National Museum of the Great Lakes

Ice storms are also very common. Because the water in Lake Michigan is freshwater, it freezes at 32 degrees, while saltwater freezes at about 28 degrees. This can be a big hazard on the lakes, when you consider the patterns our waves tend to take. While sea waves tend to be large rollers, Lake Michigan waves tend to be steep and close together, often breaking. Water tends to crash over our boats instead of boats going over the waves. Waves breaking over ships can be dangerous if crews aren’t staying on top of ice buildup. Not only that, but ocean waves are about 12 seconds apart, while great lakes waves tend to be 3 to 5 seconds apart. These steep, close together waves can roll large boats, or “turtle” them.

It's easy to see how the Great Lakes can be incredibly dangerous. Yet all of the Great lakes have extensive maritime shipping history, and shipping continues today. Why ship on these lakes if it is so dangerous? To understand that, we need to look at the economics of early American shipping.

The Economics of Shipping

To ship a cart of flour one mile in the early 1800s cost 3 cents. To ship to a neighboring town twenty miles away, a single cart of flour could cost 60 cents. To put this into perspective, a pound of flour cost four cents in 1811 in Massachusetts. For every mile you travel, you are losing the equivalent value of almost a whole pound of flour. If you travel twenty miles, you’ve lost the economic equivalent of 15 pounds of that flour on shipping cost alone, and that’s only when shipping twenty miles! It simply wasn’t economically viable to ship over long distance.

Mule Math Dropdown
One mule pulls 80 pounds (after cart), 25 miles/day
Shipping one mile costs 3 cents
One pound of flour costs 4 cents

80 pounds of flour X .04 cents (COF) = $3.20
.03 cents per mile X 100 miles (COT) = $3.00
4 bags of flour fall off the cart into the mud = $0.16
(3.20 (COF) – 3.00 (COT)) – 0.16 = 0.004
Profit: $0.04

Shipping 80 pounds of flour would cost more than the flour itself after 101 miles!

Why was shipping so expensive? Charles Dickens, when traveling in America in the 1840s, called the roads “a series of alternate swamps and gravel pits.” Roads at this point were mostly Native American trails that had been widened and packed with dirt. They had massive potholes, were riddled with large rocks, long swampy sections, tree roots, and sometimes narrowed to where it was almost impossible to get a cart by. There were few bridges, so a hundred-mile trip could easily become one hundred and fifty miles if a detour to an accessible bridge had to be made.

In fact, overland shipping was so bad at the time that it cost most to ship a ton of freight 300 miles over land than to ship from Philadelphia to Europe via boat!

Despite the construction of turnpikes, the cost of transporting freight over land remained high—at least 15 cents to move a ton of goods a mile. Adjusted for inflation, that is $3.58 a mile. To ship four drums of molasses from New York to Empire in 1811 it would cost at least 3,096.70 (again, adjusted for inflation), never mind that the molasses itself would be worth only a fraction of that.

All these issues that overland shipping had to face with awful roads, bad, roundabout routes, the constriction of how much the animal team could pull—didn’t apply to shipping on waterways. A boat could haul vastly more, and it could do it much quicker. The issue was, shipping via boat was constricted to where natural waterways already were. At the time, most ocean-connected waterways didn’t penetrate that far inland from where our major population centers were. Goods had to be shipped overland to go inland, but it was too expensive to do so.

Even waterways that appeared to go inland, like the St. Lawrence Seaway, were troubled by impassible rapids. The great lakes could be massive water highways that enabled inland shipping at a scale not seen before…if there was a way to access them from major population centers like New York.

If there was no natural waterway that connected to the Great Lakes, why not make one? The Hudson River was around 350 miles from Lake Eerie. To make a river by hand sounds crazy, especially one that is 350 miles long. Crazy is what New York Governor DeWitt Clinton was called when he proposed the Eerie Canal. It was called by his detractors “Clinton’s folly,” and “Clinton’s big ditch.”

Thomas Jefferson was reported by a friend to have said the canal was “little short of madness,” and suggested the bill be vetoed. While he thought the canal was a good idea, he believed it was too ambitious for the new nation to undertake, and he was also aware of the economic power it would lend northern states.

Thomas Jefferson wasn’t wrong to think the plan was insane. It was an undertaking that was unparalleled by anything the new nation had attempted before. The project took 8 years, with 3,000 laborers and 700 horses, and cost, adjusted for inflation, 192 million dollars. Not to mention, the four engineers who were tasked with designing it had never even seen a canal before. It was said to be built “by guess and god.”

As we know, the Eerie Canal was a massive success that cemented New York as an economic powerhouse. The canal was opened in October, 1825. The effects on shipping were drastic:

“Before the canal was built, it cost $100 and took 20 days to transport a ton of freight from Buffalo to New York City. After the canal was opened, the cost fell to $5 a ton and transit time was reduced to 6 days. By 1827, as a result of the canal, wheat from central New York State could be bought for less in Savannah, Georgia, than wheat grown in Georgia's interior.” Digital History (uh.edu)

As a direct result of the canal, shipping on the Great Lakes exploded. In the coming years, the number of boats on the lakes jumped from the hundreds to the thousands. Most were running goods from Buffalo to Chicago. These were sailing vessels, carrying things like grain and ore and wood. Michigan was surrounded on nearly all sides by water superhighways. If one wanted to ship something from New York to Chicago, or even anywhere in the very broad vicinity of Chicago, it was going through the Great Lakes.

Estimated aggregate value of commerce in 1846 on the Great Lakes
81,000,000
Estimate aggregate value of exports and imports in 1846 at principal Great Lakes Cities:
Buffalo, $49,000,000;
Cleveland, $12,549,000;
Toledo, $9,519,000;
Detroit, $8,705,000;
Erie, $6,373,000;
Chicago, $1,927,000.

The Rise of Port Towns

As we already know, travelling along the roads was hard, so where boats went, settlers and immigrants went. This wasn’t just because it was the easiest form of travel—where boats went there was also guaranteed commerce.

With the development of the steamship in the 1830s, boats needed cordwood for their engines, and lots of it. Michigan had lots of wood. Combine this with the fact that the homestead act granted free land to those who developed it—which generally meant clear cutting the land—and Michigan became a golden frontier.

Immigrants would book passage on a ship heading from New York to the Great Lakes and would get off at one of the stops on the way to Chicago. Often, they would find work in one of the numerous lumber mills that provided wood to these ships. Then, they would clear and develop their own land, selling the lumber to the mills for even more profit.

The area which now comprises Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was positioned uniquely to take advantage of the economic conditions of shipping. The Manitou Passage is a major shipping route cutting between North and South Manitou Islands and shore. This route cuts closer to the shoreline than the whole rest of the southern passage down the west coast of the mitten.

If you were to stand on the Glen Haven beach a little less than 100 years ago, you would see a harbor clogged with hundreds of vessels. But why cut through between those islands and the shore? It might not look like much, but by cutting into that passage, ships were able to save 60 or 70 miles from their trip. That passage is called the Manitou Passage.

Not only did the Manitou Passage save them time, but it provided some of the best ports in the area. These ports were very well sheltered and very deep. Not to mention the islands and mainland could supply cordwood for ship engines, as well as canned fruit and potatoes for sale in Chicago. Because of the sheer volume of ships passing through, port towns popped up everywhere along the passage.

The passage was popular for shaving time and miles off a journey, but it wasn’t a risk-free shortcut. The passage could be very dangerous. There were rocky shoals, sand bars, and strong currents. Particularly, “sand shoals wrecked dozens of ships, and currents drove many more to wreck on shores.” Because of the strong currents, the sand bars in the passage move. During the day, sailors can see these bars and steer around them. At night, they’re sailing blind. Often, if they did wreck, it would be a total loss of both the seamen and the ship. A single storm in 1913 caused losses estimated to be 10,381,000 dollars.

Storm of 1913

• Duration of four days

• Winds exceeding hurricane force

• 38-50 ft waves

• 19 total losses

• 20 stranded

• 10,381,000 losses

• 248 lives lost

• 220,486 tonnage lost

Why risk taking a passage that is less safe when the losses could be so great? The scale of shipping and the money involved was so much that even the losses, be they devastating to some, didn’t make that big of a dent in the shipping business, especially towards the latter half of the century as steamships took over the lake.

Compared to schooners, or sailing ships, steamships were better in every way. While early steamships weren’t terribly efficient, as the technology developed, steam engines enabled ships to be build out of heavier materials, and they were able to be built much larger. They didn’t rely on wind or direction of currents. Of course, that came at a cost. They needed to stop regularly to refuel.

Schooners:

Steamships:

A large schooner cost between $6,000 and $10,000 (200,000 - 350,000). Fuel costs: None 10-12 knots Must tack-’zig-zag’ Could only be built 300 feet long Example: Schooner Russell Dart 120 feet, wood 3,000 to 6,000 profit (120,000 – 240,000) Could carry 230 tons

Cost to build between $35,000 and $40,000 (1,500,000) in the period from 1835 to 1845 Machinery could cost an additional $50,000 (1,800,000). Fuel Between $80 (3,000) and $125 (4,500) per day Recycled boiler, usually serving in three or more ships before being retired Insurance costs 20-25 knots by the end of the century Can travel straight 200-800 feet Example: Bulk Freighter Onoko 287-foot, iron. About 30 feet longer than the largest wooden craft then afloat. Could carry 3,000 tons of ore on a 14-foot draft. Averaged $25,000 to $40,000 profit annually (1,000,000 – 1,500,000).

A steamer, known as a “hooker” pulls a series of Schooner barges.

Image source: National Museum of the Great Lakes

Schooners were much cheaper to build. They cost, in today’s money, from 200,000 to 300,000 dollars. For just the body, without the machinery, a steamship could cost 1.5 million. With the machinery, it could ring in over 3 million dollars. Not to mention that a schooner does not require fuel, while a steamship would literally burn money (cordwood) in the thousands every day.

Despite this massive economic inequality, steamships were vastly more profitable. In a single season, in today’s money, a schooner could make 120,000. A steamship could make 1-1.5 million.

Why did steamship make so much more? First, schooners can’t sail in a straight line—they have to “tack,” or zig zag, to catch the wind. Also, because they are relying on wind power, and the wind can only do some much, they had to be built out of lighter, buoyant materials, like wood, and they could only be built about 300 feet long.

Steamers, on the other hand, make their own power. While a schooner can only go 10-12 knots, a steamship, by the end of the century, could go as much as 25. Not to mention that they could be built 800 feet long.

As steam took over, schooners often were repurposed as barges. Steam engines were so powerful, that they would be used to pull these schooner barges, making essentially trains in the water. A steamer could pull six of these barges, depending on the engine used and the size of the schooners.

A representation of the difference in volume cordwood and coal needs to produce the same amount of power. A cubic ton of seasoned hardwood can produce anywhere from 12-20 million BTUs. A ton of Coal produces 20 million BTUs.

NPS Photo/R. Klammer

As these steam engines became more powerful, fuel gradually shifted away from wood to coal. While Great Lakes steam shipping using cordwood had remained viable via multiple refueling stops along the way, this wasn’t possible for international shipping. Steam had only been viable domestically because they could carry less wood and stop more often. The further away stops were, the more cargo space would have to be taken up by cordwood, which meant less actual goods the ship could haul. Wood was plentiful on the Great Lakes. Shipping internationally still had to use wind power, because there was nowhere they could stop to refuel.

Coal was a much more efficient fuel source—ships could travel further on it while using much less space in the hold. In fact, one cubic ton of coal, while being much smaller than one cubic ton of cordwood, produces more power.

The less you had the store the more money you could make. For this reason, ships gradually shifted to burning coal.

North Manitou Island Sawmill

ManitouIslandsArchives Doreen Pavlik Photo Collection

Bust of Port Towns

The economic landscape was changing, but also the actual landscape. Ships still burned wood, simply because coal was slow to become available, but the problem was, wood is a finite resource.
Benjamin Franklin predicted the state of the Sleeping Bear region long before it would be deforested. In 1744, to advertise the Franklin Stove, Franklin wrote:

Wood, our common Fewel, which within these 100 Years might be had at every Man’s Door, must now be fetch’d near 100 Miles to some towns, and makes a very considerable Article in the Expence of Families.

South Manitou Island was a port long before North was. Its crescent shaped bay was a better natural port than North had, but because it was settled earlier, it ran out of wood far earlier, and thus the north island became more popular.

North Manitou was larger, so it had much more wood, but even still, the island was completely clearcut before the widespread adoption of coal. Then, Glen Haven, Glen Arbor, and Port Oneida became the major ports in the area.

When the widespread adoption of coal began in earnest, ships didn’t need to stop as often, and they didn’t have good reason to stop in the areas surrounding the Manitou Passage—coal was not present in the area. Ships would still use the passage, to save time and thus money, but instead of stopping, they would sail right through.

Eventually, just after the turn of the century, rail surpassed water for cheapest freight. Rail had a high initial investment, but trains didn’t have to worry about hitting a sand shoal and losing all its cargo. Once the track was laid, that was the route. A train could be run with two men, a ship needed closer to ten.

Ships had to make many developments to catch up to the efficiency of rail. Today, we have thousand-foot lake freighters, which can beat out rail by sheer size. Below, you can see pictured the size difference between the hundred-foot lake schooners and today’s thousand-foot lake freighters. A single freighter can hold the equivalent of 700 train cars!

NPS Photo/R. Klammer

There’s a lot of history on the lakes, and it is a history that continues to unfold today. If you stand out on the beach at Glen Haven, not only can you see the remains of the dock where they would load the ships with cordwood, but you can see thousand-foot lake freighters passing through the Manitou Passage.

While we don’t have port towns that have survived on shipping, our settlements in the area have survived on tourism—when towns couldn’t get by on selling lumber, they offered tours and buggy rides on the dunes. Today the area is visited by people who want to appreciate the natural beauty of the area and preserve it.

If you decide to take in a view of the Manitou Passage, don’t forget to take a moment to look back—to stand where the docks once were, and imagine what the passage must have looked like 150 years ago, when boats clogged the water in the hundreds.

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