The historic steamship City of Midland 41 sailed the waters of Lake Michigan for nearly half a century, transporting railroad cars, automobiles, and passengers. After her construction in 1941 by the revered Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, the nation's newspapers and newsreel services covered her launching and maiden voyage with enthusiastic flair. In time, she became the most beloved of all the Great Lakes car ferries. She was built as the flagship for the Pere Marquette Railway's Lake Michigan ferry fleet, and signified a bold departure from traditional Great Lakes vessel design. Her sleek outboard profile, spacious passenger accommodations, and modern interior furnishings were a hit with the traveling public. By the time she was retired from service in 1988, she had served both the Pere Marquette and Chesapeake & Ohio Railroads, transported thousands of travelers as a passenger ferry, and become known as the "Queen of the Great Lakes Car Ferries."

One of the last operating coal-burning steamships in the world, the S.S. Badger provides travelers and their automobiles with what is now the only opportunity to ferry across Lake Michigan. Each summer, thousands of tourists enjoy sailing the 60-mile run between Ludington, Michigan and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In 1892, the Ann Arbor Railroad Company introduced a fleet of cross-lake ferries intended to transport railroad cars. By 1897, the Pere Marquette Railroad launched its own fleet out of Ludington, beginning with the S.S. Pere Marquette. For decades, these ships carried freight, and eventually automobiles and people, across Lake Michigan. Today, only the Badger remains. Through a unique collection of archival and contemporary images, this book documents the S.S. Badger's historic career as a provider of cross-lake transport. Vintage advertisements, memorable photographs, rare diagrams, and informative text reveal the fascinating details behind the Lake Michigan Car Ferry's now-rare steam propulsion system, her design and layout, and her development from an icebreaking railroad ferry to a seasonal passenger ferry.

Follow Ron and Roger Hull through a life that begins in a tiny rural town of Owen, Wisconsin at the start of World War II. Except for what seems like two epic journeys to Indiana, one across Lake Michigan in a terrible storm their world is small. But that changes when they enter grade school and their father gets a job driving truck in the big industrial city of Wausau. In a big rambling, deteriorating Victorian, they are in a changing neighborhood with two kinds of kids: good kids and bad kids. After a run in with the law, they decide to stay on the good side. The boys took music lessons, joined the Boy Scouts, but couldn't make it in the rich father run Little League. At nine, they were introduced to picking green beans in the field for money, earning about three dollars for an entire day of work. To learn, they worked a lot for free. Snow shoveling was something they could do and earn some money doing that. But even though they had bikes, they both decided not to deliver newspapers. Just as they were about to enter junior high school, their father moved to a trucking company in Marshfield, a medium-size rural town with homegrown industries like mobile homes, shoes and boots, woodcraft and hunting outerwear. Once again, the brothers adjusted well to an environment they considered inferior and backward compared to Wausau. They worked at a nearby mobile home factory to provide a substantial part of their college funds. College-bound from an early age, the twins left home at 18 well-prepared to be on their own and independent. Earning their way as they went through life with the lessons that they learned from family, teachers and friends. But active lives lead to mishaps and injury. You will learn how both brothers experienced injuries that were quite severe. But Ron, becoming paralyzed during surgery, had to restructure his college career towards a different direction than Roger. On his own, Ron got an assistantship to the University of Wisconsin to study engineering. While there, he got a fellowship to Stanford to study engineering closer to his desire. Going to California presented a whole new set of adventures. Finally, near the end of the book you will follow Ron through his oversee trips to Guatemala, his missed trips, and his trip around the world to Frankfurt, Cairo, Karachi, Bangkok and all of Thailand, Bangladesh and the Philippines Inside, you'll find great adventures with lots of freedom to explore. You will also find tragedy because no life is without some of that. if you open the pages you may find a bit of yourself portrayed as you read. Those times in the mid century of the 20th were wonderful times to live and experience. By reading our tales, you can vicariously live them with us as well.