Ludington and the great car ferries of Lake Michigan

If you spend any time on Ludington’s waterfront, sooner or later you’ll see her: a big white ship with a black smokestack, easing in or out of the harbor. That’s the S.S. Badger, and she’s the last of her kind.

For about a century, Ludington was a car ferry town, and at one point in the 1920s it was home to the largest car ferry fleet in the world. These ships were built to carry loaded railroad cars straight across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin, saving the railroads the long trip around the bottom of the lake. At the busiest, a fleet of them ran in and out of Ludington’s harbor year-round, in summer waves and winter ice alike. The Badger and her sister ship were launched in the early 1950s as the biggest coal-fired steam ferries ever built in the United States.

When the railroads no longer needed them, the ferries faded one by one until only the Badger was left. A Ludington native bought her and brought her back in the 1990s to carry cars and passengers instead of freight. Today she still makes the four-hour run across the lake to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, from spring through fall — the last coal-fired passenger steamship in the country, and a National Historic Landmark that actually moves. Down on the harbor, the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum tells the whole story.

You can ride her or just watch her come in. Either way, she’s a piece of living history. You can find sailing times at ssbadger.com.