MANISTEE, MI – A piece of Great Lakes history recently resurfaced nearly a century after an ill-fated railroad car ferry was lost in Lake Michigan.
The S.S. Milwaukee went down in 1929 with 52 people on board; there were no survivors. An original life ring from the ship was recently recovered from a rummage sale.
“Something like this does not come along very often,” said Robby Laurain, executive director of the Society for the Preservation of the S.S. City of Milwaukee, the sunken ship’s successor, which is now a museum ship permanently docked in Manistee.
Operated by the Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company, the S.S. Milwaukee carried railroad cars across Lake Michigan between Milwaukee, Wis., and Grand Haven…