Auto Ferries

Auto Ferries. Mackinaw City Historical Pathway. , Mackinaw City is the northernmost point on the lower peninsula and all the main auto routes through Northern Michigan terminated here. These roads were the East Pike, the West Pike and the Dixie Highway. The automobile eventually replaced train travel as the main method of transportation. This created a demand for auto ferry service to connect the highways of the Upper and Lower Peninsulas and in 1923 it started with one small ship. Auto traffic to the Straits increased each year and by 1953, five auto ferries were in service. The original two-lane State Highway ferry dock was expanded in 1939 to accomodate [sic] three miles of waiting cars of the thousands that converged on Mackinaw City every year. , , In spite of heavy use, the ferries did not pay for themselves, and ran into debt every year. There were other drawbacks to the system, boarding a ferry could mean a ten-hour wait in a line of cars extending for seven miles in the summer. As the ferries became more and more impractical and continued to lose money for the state, a movement began to build the Mackinac Bridge. , , Source: Memories of Mackinaw, Judy Ranville and Nancy Campbell