In the past 19 years, we've featured so many different subjects, ranging from beautiful views, to people, to animals, even to different modes of transportation. The latter is part of the subject in each of today's photos, starting with Ken Austin's shot of the U.S. Brig Niagara back in 2002.

Then in 2004, we arrive in Phoenix with Jim Ludos, to check out a photo he snapped back in the 70's of the old homestead. What an interesting pop-up camper in the shot, too!

Jump ahead a number of years to 2013 with Paul and Nathalie Brandes and we're back in Houghton for the Culver's Cruise-In Car Show, checking out everything from modern to classic vehicles that were there for all the car buffs to get a closer look at.

Finally, here and now, just a few days ago, Brita Haapala snapped a photo of the Portage Lift Bridge, complete with sunset tinged clouds and a boat docked on the Houghton Waterfront, with a perfect view of the scene from onboard.

Since we're looking at transportation through-out the years, today's video is the perfect accompaniment to top off the line-up. We head back to 1954 with a look at an 8mm film transfer of the Mackinaw Car Ferry back in the days before the Big Mac was there to get across the Straits of Mackinac.

The ferry vid is so cool...

Really neat pictures today. I particularly enjoyed the picture of the U.S. Brig Niagara.

Riding the ferry was one of the highlights of our
vacations in the 50s. As a kid I hated to see
that bridge go up. We would get in line and go
have lunch at Teyson's while we waited. Riding
the ferry from Cheboygan to Bois Blanc a couple
weeks ago really took me back.

Thank goodness for the Mackinac Bridge. I've visited the Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC area by car and I don't know how those people maintain sanity with all their ferries. People get in queue at 3am, sitting in their cars waiting for a spot on a ferry.

I was only 5 years old when the Mackinac bridge was built so I don't know what things were like back then in the U.P. Even WAY more peaceful, I imagine.

Nice pix and nostalgic video. I was 5 (circa 1960) when we made our first trip UP and the bridge was open to traffic. However I recall that most of the roads in the UP were still under construction and I vividly remember the red, copper colored dirt roads everywhere.
And speaking of cruise'n..."Start your engines".
http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/mark-phelan/2017/07/31/dream-cruise-revs-up-bigger-and-better-show-2017/518536001/

I wonder if that's a real 1964 Fairlane
Thunderbolt in picture 3, or a tribute?

Mackinaw Car Ferry - 1954:

Eric Stewart (Estew):
"Riding the ferry was one of the highlights of our vacations in the 50s. As a kid I hated to see
that bridge go up. …"

Oh I sure remember those days! Hours spent in the queue! Mom used to pack a lunch.
And occasionally there was a vendor patrolling the line of waiting cars, selling — Pasties! Yes!

"Hated to see that bridge go up." ?
Certainly not after waiting long hours in the frigid conditions on that dock on numerous occasions for deer season! Nooooo!

It's one thing to brave the ferry queue in the cold for deer season or vacation, but in places like the Puget Sound there are many people still today that put up with it as part of their daily or weekly commute. At least they don't have the additional aspects of U.P. winters added in. I guess "back in the day" there were some people that lived in Mackinaw City that worked in St Ignace or the Soo or vice versa and they took the Mackinac ferry on a daily basis.

D. A. (Midwested):
"… in places like the Puget Sound there are many people still today that put up with it as part of their daily or weekly commute."

Maybe many folks in Washington state that still remember the (click →) Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940), a.k.a."Galloping Gertie" would rather put up with a ferry!

Trivia Time:

The designer of the Mackinac Bridge, David Steinman, predicted the future failure of the Tacoma narrows bridge while it was under construction in 1938. As a result of the failure in 1940, Steinman said he designed the Mackinac Bridge to withstand winds of nearly 400 mph.

Does anyone using this page remember US-41 when it was dirt? A family friend with whom I became very close during my time at Tech (2006-2012) had also gone to Tech, but in the 1950s. He remembered the ferry rides, but also US-41 being dirt most of the way to Houghton. That stretch is still there and still dirt (they realigned when it was paved) but kind of hard to drive on now! Hard to imagine that long of a trek on a dirt road. Still plenty of long dirt roads in lower Michigan, but that leads me to believe the journey to Houghton was a lot slower than today!

Michael (Thomasbus8516):
"Does anyone using this page remember US-41 when it was dirt? A family friend with whom I became very close during my time at Tech (2006-2012) had also gone to Tech, but in the 1950s. He remembered the ferry rides, but also US-41 being dirt most of the way to Houghton. That stretch is still there and still dirt (they realigned when it was paved) but kind of hard to drive on now! Hard to imagine that long of a trek on a dirt road. Still plenty of long dirt roads in lower Michigan, but that leads me to believe the journey to Houghton was a lot slower than today!"

Whoa! I'm drawing a blank on that one!
I don't remember anything like that, at least not from 1958-1964) and certainly not "US-41 being dirt most of the way to Houghton."!

I wonder exactly which parts of US-41 were not paved?

Most of my earlier trips (from the Railroad ferry days!) to da UP weren't to Houghton, but along M-28 — (Some "Old M-28" there too toward Watton!) from Nestoria to Bruce Crossing.

Maybe there's a clue here:
See (click →) Michigan Highways > Route Listings > US-41, these segments in particular (Google Maps shows some extensive sections of "Old US-41" along these segments.):

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Quote:

1948 – US-41/M-28 is realigned from Nestoria westerly to jct US-141/M-28 in central Baraga Co onto a more direct routing.

1949 – The realignment completed in 1948 (see above) is extended with new roadway from jct US-141/M-28 northerly to Alberta completed. The former route is turned back to county control.

1952 – The final two short gravel-surfaced segments of US-41 are paved in Baraga Co, as is a several mile stretch in central Keweenaw Co. US-41 in Michigan is now completely hard-surfaced.

1957 (June 17) – A slight realignment on the south side of Chassell 'smoothes out' a sharp turn in the highway. The segment of former US-41 bypassed by the new alignment is largely turned over to local control on this date. [Although this was just a realignment; the older segment was already paved].

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