During the last years of the 19th century, the Duluth Harbor, situated between the sister cities of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, was the birthplace of a bold and innovative and decidedly odd-looking class of Great Lakes barges and steamships known as whalebacks. Capt. Alexander McDougall and his American Steel Barge Company built the curved-decked, snout-nosed whalebacks on the shores of the harbor, first at Duluth's Rice's Point and later in Howard's Pocket at Superior. The vessels were a radical departure, in design, form, and construction, from the standard shipbuilding concepts of the era but proved themselves more than capable as a number of the boats sailed the Great Lakes and the seaboards of America until the 1960s. All the whalebacks are gone now--either scrapped or sunk--with one exception. After sailing the lakes for more than 70 years, the last whaleback, the SS Meteor, returned home to Superior in 1972 and is now continuing its service as a magnificent maritime museum on Barker's Island.

�The Pacific Northwest�s classic confrontation between militants demanding ambiguous change and an establishment intransigently defending the status quo occurred on Sunday, November 5, 1916. To this day no one knows who shot first, nor even how many died, but thanks to Mill Town, we have at last a charting of the forces, economic and personal, that led to the tragedy.��Murray Morgan

Located on the waters of Possession Sound, Mukilteo is one of the earliest settlements in Snohomish County. It takes its name, which means "good camping ground," from the Native American people who established a permanent winter village on the spit of land and adjoining salt marsh. Numerous events add to Mukilteo's rich history, including the visit of Capt. George Vancouver in 1792 and Gov. Isaac Stevens's signing of the Point Elliott Treaty in 1855. Founded by Morris Frost and Jacob Fowler in 1860, the city housed the first salmon cannery in Washington and one of the region's earliest breweries. Japanese immigrants became an important part of the community from 1903 to 1930 while working for the Crown Lumber Company. The city's lighthouse, located near the Mukilteo-Clinton ferry dock, has been a well-known fixture since 1906.

Water transportation has played a key role in the Great Lakes region’s settlement and economic growth, from providing entry into the new lake states to offering cheap transportation for the goods they produced. There are numerous tales surrounding the Great Lakes shipping trade, but few storytellers have addressed the factors that influenced the use, design, and evolution of the ships that sailed the inland seas. Sail, Steam, and Diesel: Moving Cargo on the Great Lakes provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of Great Lakes ships over the centuries, from small birch-bark canoes originally used in the region to the massive thousand-footers of today. The author also looks at the economics of vessel operation in the context of the expanding scope of the shipping industry, which was crucial in catapulting America into becoming an industrial juggernaut. The captains of industry and the sailors whose labor propelled the trade populate this account, which also offers solemn acknowledgment of the high cost paid in both lost ships and lives. Although they might not realize it, millions of Americans have owed their livelihoods to the Great Lakes boats, and this volume is an excellent way to recognize the importance of this regional industry.

Marine City is nestled on the banks of the beautiful St. Clair River, half a mile away from Sombra, Ontario, Canada. Today, it is a small town with strong American values, much like it always has been. Full of industrious people who keep America running, this town has a long history of hard work and skilled labor that is reflected in its rich heritage of shipbuilders, sailors, farmers, factory workers, and enterprising businesspeople. Their stories are shared throughout this book in rare and seldom seen photographs from the 1870s through the 1930s. From the perspectives of the people who lived and worked here, Images of America: Marine City shows a tradition of shipbuilding and sailing, as well as life around town, documenting the important role Marine City played in the early development of the entire Great Lakes shipping industry.