Illustrations
| Page | |
| The Fountain of the Great Lakes | [Frontispiece] |
| Lorado Taft, Sculptor. | |
| The First Step in the Making of a Ship—Laying the “Keel Blocks” | [4] |
| Second Step—Laying the Keel, or Bottom of the Ship, on the “Keel Blocks” | [6] |
| The Growing Ship | [8] |
| Vessel Almost Ready for Launching | [10] |
| A Monster of Steel and Iron Ready to be Launched | [12] |
| Weight 9,500,000 lbs. | |
| The Launching | [14] |
| The “Thomas F. Cole,” 11,200 Tons, Being Fitted with Engines and Boilers after her Launching | [16] |
| The “Cole” is the largest ship on the Lakes. Length, 605 feet 5 inches. | |
| Her First Trip—Off for the Ore Regions of the North | [18] |
| This Shows Some of the 800,000 Rivets that Go to the Making of a 10,000-Ton Leviathan of the Inland Seas | [22] |
| Ice-Bound. Thirty-two Boats Tied up in the Ice at the Soo | [26] |
| From a Photograph by Lord & Thomas, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. | |
| A Network of Tracks Running through the Ore Lands | [28] |
| Captains of the Vessels of the American Steamship Company | [30] |
| The “Montezuma” | [32] |
| The largest wooden ship on fresh water being towed out of the Maumee River, Toledo. | |
| A Coal Dock at Superior, Wisconsin | [34] |
| The pile of coal is 1400 feet long and 30 feet high. | |
| The Record Load Hauled by One Team out of the Michigan Woods, 20,000 Feet | [36] |
| One Steam Shovel Keeps Three Locomotives and Trains Busy | [38] |
| Steamers at a Modern Ore Unloading Plant at Conneaut | [40] |
| The Main Slip in the Harbour of Conneaut | [42] |
| Conneaut is the second largest ore-receiving port on the Lakes. | |
| One of the Huge Open Pits of the Mesaba Range | [44] |
| A Raft of Five Million Pulp Logs on the North Shore of Lake Michigan | [48] |
| Scooping up Ore from the Mahoning Mine at Hibbing | [52] |
| The largest open pit mine in the world. | |
| A Mining Town on the Mesaba Range, where a Few Years ago the Deer and Bear Roamed Undisturbed | [54] |
| Harbour View at Conneaut, Ohio, Showing Docks and Machinery | [56] |
| A Steam Shovel at Work | [58] |
| This removes from 4000 to 8000 tons of ore a day. | |
| The Old and the New | [62] |
| A modern freight carrier passing one of the old schooners. | |
| A Shaft on One of the Ranges | [66] |
| The “North West” | [68] |
| One of the finest passenger steamers on the Great Lakes. | |
| The Stop at Tashinoo Park, St. Clair Flats | [70] |
| The Landing at Mackinac Dock, Michigan | [72] |
| Hickory Island at the Mouth of Detroit River | [74] |
| From a Photograph by Manning Studio, Detroit. | |
| The “City of Erie” | [76] |
| The fastest steamer on the Lakes, holding a record of 22.93 miles per hour. | |
| Little Venice, St. Clair River | [80] |
| Showing the type of “Inns,” where people may pass their holidays at small expense. Courtesy of Northern Steamship Co. | |
| A Scene on Belle Isle, Detroit River | [82] |
| Steamer “Western States” | [84] |
| One of the largest and fastest boats on the Lakes. Carries 2500 people and her fastest speed is 20 miles an hour. From a Photograph by Detroit Photographic Co. | |
| Steamship “North West” in American Lock | [86] |
| Cottages Built at Small Expense along the St. Mary’s River | [88] |
| A Steamer Stripped by a Tow-line by Running between a Steamer and her Consort | [90] |
| From a Photograph by Lord & Rhoades, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. | |
| A Remarkable Photograph Showing the Big Freighter “Stimson” in a Holocaust of Smoke and Flame | [94] |
| After a Fierce Night’s “Late Navigation” Run across Lake Superior | [96] |
| A Ship that Made the Shore before she Sank. The Work of Raising her in Progress | [100] |
| A Treacherous Sea in its Garb of Greatest Beauty | [102] |
| One phase of Lake navigation. | |
| A View of the “Zimmerman” | [104] |
| After a collision with another freighter. | |
| The Steamer “Wahcondah” | [108] |
| One of the Lake grain carriers which was caught in a storm late in the season after being buffeted by the waves of Lake Superior for about fourteen hours. | |
| This is One of the Most Remarkable Photographs Ever Taken on the Lakes. It Shows a Sinking Lumber Barge just as She Was Breaking in Two | [110] |
| The photograph was taken from a small boat. | |
| The Residence of Ansley Wilcox at Buffalo | [114] |
| Where President Roosevelt took the oath of office. Copyright 1908 by Detroit Photographic Co. | |
| A Bird’s-eye View of the Harbour of Duluth, Taken from the Hill | [116] |
| From a Photograph by Maher, Duluth. | |
| The Ship Canal and Aërial Bridge, Duluth, Minn. | [118] |
| Copyright 1908 by Detroit Photographic Co. | |
| Fleet of Boats in Duluth Harbour Waiting to Unload | [122] |
| View Looking South-west from the New Chamber of Commerce Building, Buffalo | [124] |
| Unloading at One of the Coal Docks at Duluth | [126] |
| A Fleet of Erie Canal Boats—Capacity of Each 150 Tons | [128] |
| The boats on the new canal will be 1000 tons each. | |
| The Jack-Knife Bridge at Buffalo | [132] |
| A Scene on Blackwell Canal | [134] |
| The winter home of big boats in Buffalo. | |
| Some of the Grain Elevators at Duluth, which Have a Combined Storage Capacity of 35,550,000 Bushels | [136] |
| The Mesaba Ore Docks | [138] |
| From the Deck of the Ship the Tug Looks Like an Ant Dragging at a Huge Prey | [142] |
| Observation Room on the “Wm. G. Mather” | [144] |
| Which gives an idea of the luxuriousness of the guests’ quarters on a Great Lakes freighter. | |
| The Luxurious Dining-room on the 10,000-Ton Steamer “J. H. Sheadle” | [146] |
| Tugs Trying to Release Boats Held in the Ice at the Soo | [150] |
| Copyright 1906 by Young, Lord & Rhoades, Ltd. | |
| Whaleback Barges Preparing for Winter Quarters at Conneaut, Ohio | [152] |
| (The Whaleback is a type of vessel that has been tried and found wanting. They are going out of use.) | |
| Ashore | [154] |
| Arch Rock, Mackinac Island | [160] |
| One of the natural wonders of the world. | |
| Fort Mackinac | [168] |
| Marquette’s Grave, St. Ignace, Michigan | [174] |
| Monument at Put-in-Bay in Memory of the British and Americans who Died in the Battle of Lake Erie | [182] |
| Old West Blockhouse, Fort Mackinac | [186] |
| Built by the British, about 1780. | |
| The Monument Erected to those who Fought and Died on Mackinac Island | [190] |
| Mackinac Island, Showing Old Fort Mackinac | [194] |
| Once the Scene of Bloodshed and Strife, these Old Trees Stand where French, Indian, and British Fought Years ago | [200] |
| A View of the Historic Battle-ground on Mackinac Island | [206] |
| An Old British Gunboat Discovered in the River Thames | [212] |
| Scene when Admiral Dewey Passed through the Soo Locks | [216] |
| Map | [At End] |
PART I
The Ships, their Owners, their Sailors, and their Cargoes
I
The Building of the Ships
Not long ago, I was on a Lake freighter pounding her way up Huron on the “thousand-mile highway” that leads to Duluth. Beside me was a man who had climbed from poverty to millions. He was riding in his own ship. His interests burned ten thousand tons of coal a year. He was one of the ore kings of the North—as rough as the iron he dug, filled to the brim with enthusiasm and animal energy of the Lake breed; a man who had helped to make the Lakes what they are, as scores of others like him have done. Before and behind us there trailed the smoke of a dozen of the steel leviathans of the Inland Seas. I had asked him a question, and there was the fire of a great pride in his eyes when he answered.
“It would make a nation by itself—this Lake country!” he said. “And it would be America. It’s America from Buffalo to Duluth, every inch of it, and the people who are in it are Americans. That’s American smoke you see off there, and American ships are making it; they’re run by a thousand or more American captains, and they’re Americans fore ’n’ aft, too. We’ve got only eight States along the Lakes, but if we should secede to-morrow the world would find us the heart and power of the nation. That’s how American we are!”
This is the patriotism one finds in the Lake country, from the roaring furnaces of the East to the vast ore beds of Minnesota. It is representative of the spirit that rules the Inland Seas; it is this spirit that has built an empire, and is building a vaster empire to-day, along the edges of the world’s greatest fresh-water highways.