Porch Notes
There's a US Navy destroyer parked on the Saginaw River
History and culture
Drive along the Saginaw River near the Independence Bridge and you’ll do a double take: there’s a full-sized US Navy destroyer tied up at the bank. That’s the USS Edson, a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer commissioned in 1958, which served from Vietnam to the Mediterranean and later spent years as a museum ship in New York before Bay County brought her home to the river in 2012.
Today she’s the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum, moored at Independence Park on the Bangor Township shore across from Essexville, and you can walk her decks on a regular tour — bridge, gun mounts, mess decks, the works. Veterans’ crews keep her up, school groups and scout troops overnight aboard, and for everyone who lives nearby she’s simply part of the riverfront skyline: 418 feet of Cold War steel at the end of Martin Street. Not every town gets a warship for a neighbor.
Where to see it
Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum, 1680 Martin Street, on the river at Independence Park in Bangor Township, across from Essexville.