“Badger” Staff Hopes to Move Up Ferry’s First Crossing After Repairs

The SS Badger will sail from Manitowoc to Ludington once again this year – June 1 at the latest. File photo by Craig Sterrett.

With repairs nearing completion after the loading ramp failed at the SS Badger ferry dock in Michigan, the historic ferry will resume trips across Lake Michigan this spring. 

Managers for the ferry – which can carry 180 cars, or fewer if tractor-trailer rigs and big RVs are on board – expressed optimism the ramp for the dock will be repaired and the ship can sail earlier than originally anticipated.

The Badger staff is taking reservations for crossings starting June 1, but they hope the official opening date will come a couple of weeks earlier than that. Old wood pilings were removed and steel pilings were driven and filled with concrete. The new ramp structures have been placed on top of the pilings. 

“The lifting winches are being manufactured in Wisconsin and we are awaiting their delivery as well as installing the weights on the rear of the structure,” said Sara Spore, Lake Michigan Carferry General Manager.

“There is no damage to the ship.”

Although the 410-foot-long Badger sails out of Manitowoc, Wisconsin and Ludington, Michigan, it has a strong connection to Sturgeon Bay – and not just those residents who don’t want to drive through Chicago. 

Completed in 1953 in Sturgeon Bay by The Christy Corporation, one year after the launch of her sister ship, the SS Spartan, the coal-fired vessel originally carried railcars for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.

Retrofitted in 2015 for installation of bins to catch coal ash rather than dropping it into the lake, the National Park Service designated the Badger as a National Historic Landmark in 2016.

Last August, Mark W. Barker, president of Interlake Maritime Services, the parent company of the Lake Michigan Carferry, expressed disappointment about the Badger’s 70th season coming to an abrupt end. “But,” he said in a press release at the time, “we are fully committed to making the extensive repairs – and doing it the right way – so that we will be better and stronger in 2024 to serve our loyal passengers and port communities.”

Learn more at ssbadger.com.