There's a US Navy destroyer parked on the Saginaw River
The USS Edson, a 418-foot Navy destroyer, is moored on the Saginaw River in Bangor Township as the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum.
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. She served from Vietnam to the Mediterranean, then spent years as a museum ship in New York. 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. You can walk her decks on a regular tour — bridge, gun mounts, mess decks, the works. Veterans’ crews keep her up, and school groups and scout troops overnight aboard. 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.