Resort Ferry Boats of White Lake by Doug Kniff

It was time for a new and exciting era. In the late 1800 s the lumbering industry in the area was in rapid decline. At about this time, the summer resort business began developing quite rapidly. Transportation played a vital part in the development of the resort business. In the early days there were only two ways to reach White Lake, one was by steamer and the other by rail. In those days families came early in the summer and stayed put until it was time to leave in the late fall. Resort hotels were popular because they meant a real vacation for the wife and mother, no meals to cook, entertainment more or less the responsibility of the resort keepers, and a number of other families around for sociability. At White Lake, a sizeable resort, Michillinda was incorporated in 1894, and the Sylvan Beach Resort Company was organized the following year. Both resorts were on the Lake Michigan shore and both had docks suitable at least for small steamers, located at the West End of White Lake. The White Lake docks received direct service from Chicago via the Goodrich Lines. Other passenger lines that included stops at White Lake were the Crosby Line, Barry Line, and others from ports on both the west and east side of Lake Michigan. Another important, if specialized, summer development was the coming of the Chicago Boy Scout Camps and through its example the development of Y.M.C.A. and other boys and girls camps. First of the Boy Scout camps was Camp Owasippe operated by the Chicago Boy Scout Council in 1910. For many years every summer thousands of Boy Scouts from the Chicago area were treated to a big thrill when they made the trip from Chicago to Whitehall on the various steamers and ferries en route to their summer encampment. Camp Owasippe, still in existence today, is the largest and oldest of these camps and owns thousands of acres in Blue Lake township on Big Blue Lake, White River, and Lake Owasippe. Numerous other camps have also located in the area so much so that Muskegon County now ranks second in the nation in numbers of camps. All of the steamers that made a stop at White Lake were served then by small ferries to the villages of Whitehall and Montague and the various resorts on White Lake. Since the only other mode of travel in those days was by railroad, the ferries had a good deal of traf€c if not an overwhelming amount of business. Ferry boats were the accepted means of travel between the various resorts and from the channel to Whitehall and Montague. Little steam launches like the Cayuga, Sylph and Sailor Boy made runs at €rst, later succeeded by gasoline launches like the Merri Widow, Ankle Deep, Three Sisters, Edna Mae and others. They followed more or less a schedule, most of them planning a couple of round trips a day. In the early years the major dock for the passenger ships was at Lakeside Inn. Just at the curve of the dune by Lakeside Inn the water was very deep which would allow for the big ships to get in there. The Arcade on the dock at Sylvan Beach was built about 1914 and then it became the major point for passenger ships to disembark. At one time there were six ferries operating on White Lake serving 16 docks. Several of the resorts on the Lake also had docks but were not regular stops. If they had passengers to be picked up, they would run up a �ag and the next ferry boat to come along would stop. Different color �ags indicated whether the passengers wanted to go up or down the lake, a red �ag to go downlake and a white flag to go uplake to town. If two ferry boats were in the area, they would race to the dock, not so much for the fare, as for the sport of it. Since there were few passenger fares to be gained from these stops, as soon as it became apparent that one ferry would be the victor, the other would wave off in good spirit. The competition for these small fares was rarely €erce, like it was for the service to the big boats, but it did provide some excitement for the passengers, both for those on board and those waiting at the dock. When one of the large passenger steamers from Chicago or other ports would arrive, (the Alabama, the Georgia or the Carolina) the ferries would be the €rst to meet it. The fare on the ferries was 15 cents per person one way or 25 cents round trip and there was quite a competition for passengers among the ferry boats which added a bit of excitement for the ferry boat operators. The €rst ferry there would dock and get the most passengers. When it was €lled it would leave the dock and the next ferry in line would move into the space. The last ferry in line would get few, if any, passengers. The competition was €erce, with the local paper occasionally reporting on running battles on the lake between ferry boats. Three of the ferry boats were operated by the Fruitvale Company. These three ferries names were the Ankle Deep, the Wet Ass and the Beulah Parker. The Beulah Parker was named for the daughter of Harrison M. Parker, the Chicago promoter of Fruitvale who had of€ces in the Hearst building on the corner of Madison and Market in Chicago. The other two boats were older vessels and were named for the progression of one sinking. First you are Ankle Deep and later you have a Wet Ass . The Merri Widow was purchased by Chet Spicklemire about 1914 and named by him. The €rst day he had the as yet unnamed boat on the lake, one of the passengers was the daughter of a wealthy man who resorted in the area. She sat near the prow of the boat wearing her Merry Widow , a large, wide brimmed hat that was quite stylish at the time. At the end of that trip, they christened the boat for her hat. Another of the boats owned and operated by Chet Spiklemire was the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters was purchased from Saginaw Congressman Fordney who had a resort home on the north side of White Lake and it was named for his three daughters. The Rochdale Inn was a large and popular inn located on the White River. The fare from Chicago to Whitehall, including the launch trips uplake and upriver and a week at the Rochdale Inn could be had for $18. When the bridge across White River between Whitehall and Montague was built the ferry boats quit going up river as the bridge was constructed too low for regular ferry traf€c. When the county paved the road around White Lake the ferry operators foresaw the end of the ferry boat business. A few of the ferry boat operators soldiered on devising other means of lake operation. Frank Titus who operated The Three Sisters up to the end of her use on White Lake purchased a small barge and used it as a car ferry between Murry s Inn and Indian Point, located at the end of the mouth of the channel into Lake Michigan. The name of the business was the Diamond Ferry and carried one auto at a time across the channel. After Frank sold the Three Sisters it was taken up to Traverse Bay and ran as a ferry boat from Northport to St. James. It stopped running in 1933 or 1934. The Steamers of Lake Michigan fell to a similar fate. Along with the development of auto travel, the real decline in pro€table Lake passenger steamship operations in the Great Lakes began with the enactment of the LaFollette Seaman s Act. Under the stipulations of the Act, a man had to have four years experience to qualify as an able bodied seaman. This rule forced the lines to carry a larger payroll through the winter months, thereby greatly increasing operating costs. Steamer Line operators, to no avail, did their best to convince legislators that operating conditions on the Lakes were seasonal and therefore vastly different from those encountered in salt-water ships. Perhaps, someday in the future, the traveling public will again turn to our inland seas for recreation, and €ne passenger ships and ferries will again dot the horizons of our beautiful Lakes.

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