William Mercereau, the father of the Ludington carferry fleet
By Rob Alway William Lincoln Mercereau served as the superintendent of the Pere Marquette Railway carferries for 31 years. He was born on June 9, 1866 in Union, New York, the son of Seymour and Mary Mercereau. According to his obituary, published on June 24, 1957 in the Ludington Daily News, he spent some of…
2025: 150 years of cross-lake service from Ludington
By Rob Alway The year 2025 marks 150 years of cross-lake service from Ludington, Michigan to Wisconsin. In 1875, the first steamships to transport goods across Lake Michigan were known as break-bulk freighters. Railcars at that time did not travel across the lake, so the contents of the cars were removed, loaded onto the break-bulk…