First decades The Mackinac Transportation Company (MTC) was a joint venture founded in 1881 by three separate railroads, the
Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad, the
Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, and the
Michigan Central, to create a twelve-month service to connect their three railheads located in
Mackinaw City, Michigan and
St. Ignace, Michigan. The company purchased its first vessel, the steamship SS
Algomah, and due to heavy copper traffic, which was difficult to transship from train to ship in barrels, shortly thereafter purchased a barge named
Betsy able to carry four railcars when towed by
Algomah.
St. Ignace was built with a propeller at her bow to break ice ahead of the hull, and entered service in April 1888. In June 1902,
St. Ignace sank at dock in St. Ignace, but was refloated and returned to service. In 1916, MTC began carrying automobile traffic, with vehicles loaded onto railcars for the passage. Following the opening of the
Mackinac Bridge in 1957, MTC was losing at least $100,000 annually by the early 1960s. After repeated attempts, the ICC granted permission to end operations in 1976, but the state of Michigan chose to subsidize the company in order to continue service.
Chief Wawatam continued to operate until August 1984, when a wall collapsed at the St. Ignace dock, making it unusable. The ship was laid up awaiting a decision from the state regarding the future of the service, until in 1986 the
Soo Line Railroad abandoned the unused railroad to the St. Ignace docks—shortly thereafter the tracks to the Mackinaw City were also removed and
Chief Wawatam was sold in 1988 for conversion into a barge. ==See also==