Pere Marquette 10 gone from Port Huron

T.J. Gaffney · **Posted:** Mon Aug 18, 2003 1:03 pm

Gentleman, I come to you with a heavy heart...

I watched last week as the Pere Marquette #10 carfloat/ ferry left Port Huron for last time. I and others tried to keep her here, but the $250,000 asking price was more than we could come up with, and CSX has been giving E&LS (who now owns her) an ultimatum for moving her for over a year now. She has gone down to Toledo to be laid up along with the former NS ferries Roanoke and Windsor. She last operated in October of 1994. I take this as a very personal failure; she was the last of the P.M. river ferries left here in Port Huron (the ex-Pere Marquette 12, now St. Clair is owned by McKeil Marine in Hamilton). It will now be pretty impossible to justify keeping the Apron for her (which dates back to 1903, actually) and I sincerely doubt we will get her back. A dark dark day for yours truly. I would have told you all sooner, but a little power outage made it pretty impossibe to get online for yours truly (and about 20 million others). This particularly hurts after our recent triumph with the Bramble; too bad that hard work don't always guarantee you preservation of everything.

The Manitowoc, which had been laid up at Toledo with the other NS ferries, was recently sold to K&K Marine of Menominee as a storage barge. They also own the former Ann Arbor carferry Viking, which, depending on who you talk to, is either under conversion or not under conversion into a barge.

With a heavy heart,

TJ

Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

Bob Yarger · **Posted:** Mon Aug 18, 2003 1:55 pm

The old cliche "tis better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all certainly holds true here. It is always painful to see things done away with when one has tried hard to save them, but think about how many things we cherish have been destroyed without anyone even speaking up for them, or writing them off as hopeless before even starting.

ryarger@rypn.org

T.J. Gaffney · **Posted:** Mon Aug 18, 2003 2:58 pm

> The old cliche "tis better to have
> tried and failed than to never have tried at
> all certainly holds true here. It is always
> painful to see things done away with when
> one has tried hard to save them, but think
> about how many things we cherish have been
> destroyed without anyone even speaking up
> for them, or writing them off as hopeless
> before even starting.

Thanks for the kind words Bob. I haven't completely given up, but it just got one heck of a lot harder. On the bright side, at least we know she can make that can of trip still!

TJ

Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org