The Beaver Island Ferry
Near Charlevoix, Michigan
This little harbor is the mainland gateway to Beaver Island, the largest island in Lake Michigan, sitting about thirty-two miles offshore and nicknamed America's Emerald Isle for its green hills and Irish settlers. Getting people and freight across that open water has never been simple. Over the years at least nineteen different ferries have made the Charlevoix run.
The first real one was a steam-powered wooden boat named the Nellie, which started carrying passengers in eighteen ninety. Two different vessels have carried the name Emerald Isle. The first, launched in nineteen fifty-five, was the first boat ever built specifically for this route, about sixty-five feet long and able to carry nine cars and a hundred and twenty-five passengers.
The Emerald Isle you see today was built in nineteen ninety-seven and is by far the largest ever to serve the island, hauling nearly three hundred passengers, a hundred tons of freight, and even a full semi truck in a single crossing. The modern company was reorganized in nineteen eighty-four so that the people who actually live on and own property on Beaver Island would control their own lifeline. The ride takes a little over two hours, and on a calm morning it is one of the great quiet voyages of the Great Lakes.
