Maritime Heritage Alliance keeps history of the lakes alive
By Sandra Serra Bradshaw
Sun contributor
With joy we hailed the coming sail as round the point with speed,
The “Yankee” or the “Wah-bi-zee”
We’re striving for the lead
The “Madeline” and “Arrow” too,
would gladly greet our eyes
as weekly trips from Mackinaw
They brought us our supplies
0, blessed are the memories.
Before our vision flow of the days
when we were pioneers…
– S.E. Wait, 1834-1919
The interest in traditional sailing ships—both here in the Grand Traverse Region and throughout much of the world—holds many in fascination. This enthusiasm for both reconstructing and maintaining these boats visually draws past maritime history and current life together. Schooners would come to grace the waterways not only out of need in the early days of settlement, but again today, bringing a deep recreational satisfaction to many. Being aboard, skimming over the water, feeling the wooden planks underneath one’s feet, winds whipping the face, is sheer exhilaration for the adventurous.
To see these boats with their billowing sails on Grand Traverse Bay is spellbinding. They provide a modern-day vision of an era when the waterways were the highways of the area, opening the country before the great forests were cut down and roads were built. By some luck, hard work and right circumstances, a growing number of these extraordinary, well-loved boats make their home in Leelanau County waters: Alliance, Champion, Inland Seas, Madeline, Manitou, and not to forget the smaller but equally loved Gracie L, Sandpiper and Witchcraft.
A passion for classic wooden boats brought together the founders of the Maritime Heritage Alliance (MHA) in the early 1980s. The group’s primary interest was to preserve the maritime history of the area. A quote from the late Bill Livingston, a renowned boat builder from Northport, typifies the alliance’s attitude: “The real joys in life consist of making something with our hands, not making money, but making something.”
MHA has done just that in the ensuing years. The first wooden boat constructed by MHA was in 1983 in the form of the 20-foot Mackinaw boat, Gracie L. Mackinaw boats were light and open sailboats that were used for fishing and transportation on the Upper Great Lakes during the fur-trading era. They were noted for their cargo capacity and speed, an upgrade of sorts of the Native American canoe, and they more suited to the oft-rough waters of the inland seas.
Mackinaw-type boats were used as early as 1804-1806 in the Lewis and Clark expedition. Besides plying on the Great Lakes. Fur traders put them to good use on the upper Missouri River and its principal tributaries and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in the then-growing new country. Today, the reconstructed Mackinaw boat, Gracie L, can often be seen at boat shows and festivals throughout the region.
Shortly after the successful building of the Gracie L, people within MHA decided to move forward with a more massive project. The 56-foot replica of the Madeline, made entirely by the MHA all-volunteer force, came as the next project for the industrious group. The original Madeline—built in 1845 in Fairport, Ohio—sailed the waters of the Great Lakes almost 180 years ago as the first non-Native American school in the region for five aspiring young men.
They, along with their captain and crew, realized that they needed some book-learning to succeed in their careers. So, before the lakes were frozen, they sailed Madeline into the quiet and secluded Bowers Harbor, off the Old Mission Peninsula in Traverse City. There they spent their time devoted to their education; time was well spent as each went on to successful careers on the Great Lakes. One of the grandchildren of the clan headed an insurance company which named and owned another famous boat: the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the American Great Lakes bulk carrier that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on Nov. 10, 1975, sadly with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men.
Today’s Madeline re-creation, built of oak and pine, was designed by noted local shipbuilder, the late Bob Core (1928-2023), to replicate the original schooner. The Madeline carries the distinctive title of “Ambassador to the State of Michigan,” and “Ambassador to Traverse City,” “Proving that pursuing a dream can create a motivating and powerful thing,” commented Heather Jankens, traditional sailor and Executive Coordinator of the MHA.
Besides the schooner Madeline, another ship joined the small fleet. “The cutter Champion was generously donated to us by the Barkhausen family in 2008,” explained Jankens. “She is a 38’ boat that was built to be the ‘Ultimate Cruising Machine’ in 1968. She is used for the SAIL Champion Program. The program’s primary mission is to work with at-risk and disadvantaged youth,” she said.
“Today we welcome all to come sail on our schooners. All are invited to learn traditional maritime skills onboard our ships and in our shops,” Jankens said. The Maritime Heritage Alliance, a 501c3 non-profit, has been fully dedicated to preserving and teaching Great Lakes maritime history when this once small group of like-minded sailing friends began in a vacant old fire hall on Cass Street in Traverse City in 1982.
Many have joined MHA over the ensuing years. Today, MHA holds a significant role and is well-known for its success in the construction and restoration of these wooden vessels, and their non-stop efforts to promote and preserve that colorful history both here locally and around all the Great Lakes. But all this boat building and maintenance requires a boat shop.
MHA leased the once run-down coal pile in 1981 from Traverse City Light and Power and for over twenty years now while helping countless people, including children, with comradery, sailing experience and carpentry—learning skills including restorations, maintenance and related marine learning experiences. “Our ships will still have a home on the pier, but now we are seeking new shop space nearby,” explained Jankens.
“Wooden ships are hard work, and as such we do all our own maintenance,” Jankens continued. “There are not many boatyards left in the world that can re-deck a schooner or make a new mast. We do all of that and more to keep our vessels safe and sailing. During the week we host youth to learn about basic maritime skills, or a group from Grand Traverse Industries to learn something new, and to build a ship model.”
Across from the pier they made use of 7,000 square feet of workshop space, leased from Rotary Camps and Services, for the intensive and ongoing work on the boats. A storm for the MHA to wrangle through is that MHA workshops will have to move out of that current location by Oct. 31, 2025. This to make way for a new 33,000-35,000 (some report 40,000) square-foot Fresh Water Innovation Center (FWIC). The new center will have its own research lab, classrooms, and business rental space for start-up marine related entrepreneurs. The FWIC will allow the Maritime Heritage Alliance’s schooners, Madeline and Champion, to continue to dock their boats there.
“Our ships will still have a home on the pier, but we are seeking new shop space nearby,” explained Heather Jankens. Instead of the news paralyzing the group, they are hoping to make proverbial “lemonade out of lemons.” “We are using this opportunity to fine-tune our vision and programs moving forward,” she said. “The Great Lakes are powerful teachers and allow people of all ages to develop a sense of self-reliance and strengthen our community.”
“Finding a new home gives us the opportunity to reinvent ourselves—our organization,” Jankens explained. “We have been changing incrementally over the last several years and now this is the catalyst for some positive change.”
MHA now faces yet another adversity. “At the beginning of our sailing season we just now found out we must pull Champion out of the water. We discovered an issue with the vessel that needs to be addressed while we still have the shops that we currently have to work on the boat. It will require all our skilled volunteers and equipment to assess the repairs and will also allow us to use this situation as a teaching opportunity to the community. To fulfill Champion’s program application, the schooner Madeline was inspected to carry passengers – and we will continue our youth program on board Madeline while Champion is under repair.”
“We are not fair-weather sailors,” shared Ross Richardson, interim president of MHA, author, and local shipwreck hunter. “We are used to dealing with adverse conditions—both on the water and off. We are always in a storm, and that is where people shine. It really is what MHA is all about,” Richardson remarked. “It’s an opportunity to use our skills for something that matters.”
This article is partly excerpted from Bradshaw’s forthcoming book on Leelanau County, a sequel to Seasons of the Leelanau; and based on her 30-plus year journalism career, much of it spent researching and writing about maritime matters in the Grand Traverse Region.
