At the north end of Jones Island, on the lake side, used to be the C&O/PM and GTW ferry docks. And a grain elevator on the inner harbor is still operational. Petroleum products are also shipped on the west side of this island.
Paul Erspamer posted two photos with the comment:
Here is what winter layup fleets looked like when we REALLY had lots of Great Lakes bulk freighters, back before the thousand-footers. All silver-stackers, I believe. Both pictures show the inner harbor at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jones Island is to the right in first photo.
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| 1 John Thompson 😲😲27 from my count. Paul Erspamer I understand maintaining the lay-up fleet used to be a major source of employment in the City. USS had an operations building on Jones Island which I remember from the 80s. John Thompson Paul Erspamer was the fleet that busy or did the 1000 footers make that much difference? Paul Erspamer Look at one of the 1000-footers, and their cargo capacity, and compare with one of the early 20th-C. 350-foot to 600-foot lakers. Indiana Harbor carries 80,900 tons. Compare with perhaps 9000 tons for vessels from the early & mid-20th century to see how many boats that 80,900-ton capacity replaces. Alpena (built as Leon Fraser in 1942, 630-feet long), originally carried 19,150 tons. William H. Donner (built 1914 at 524 ft.) carried 9,000 tons. So one 1000-footer can replace the capacity of nine 524-foot early 20th-Century vessels like the Donner. John Thompson Paul Erspamer when I put some thought to it, I do see your point, thankyou. Mike Harlan shared Nora Davis Kieser I would love to know the year. Jack Brotz Nora Davis Kieser I believe it's 1937 because have a copy with date on. Ed Goebel Any idea what port this is? Dennis DeBruler They are wedged into this V of water. It looks like the grain elevator still exists. https://www.google.com/.../@43.0035262,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3 Aaron Nelson posted Neat photos of tin stackers in layup. I believe the original caption said 1937 or 39. David Olson A question, there does not appear to be any ice and the plants appear to be growing, so was there a steel strike that cause a summer layup, or was this taken in winter/spring? Off to google steel strikes. And back https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Steel_strike Lars Larson: Dick Kleber I never had a problem with 12 foot centers, but the Ben E Tate had wooden hatch covers that were removed by hand. That made me nervous. Most dangerous boat on the Lakes. Gary Cole: Dick Kleber worked deck on two Ole tarpees...yes dangerous if you don't have a good winch operator. |
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| Thanks to Milwaukee Public Library. Roger LeLievre Straw boaters were clearly in fashion! |
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| Al Miller posted The 1953-'54 winter layup fleet in Milwaukee included quite a few Pittsburgh boats. The photo appeared in the April 1954 issue of Pittsburgh Sidelights. |
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| Al Miller posted A photo from February 1958 shows part of the tin stacker layup fleet in Milwaukee. Photos like this one seemed to be an annual affair for the Milwaukee newspapers -- the lonely watchman viewing his fleet. The photo cutline on the back reads: "A watchman keeps a lonely vigil aboard the U.S. Steel ore carriers docked at Jones Island in Kinnickkinnic Bay, Milwaukee, Wis. Except for occasional visits from watchmen or repair crews, the berthed ships are veiled in ghostly silence. The vessels are waiting for the spring thaw and the word to dash north for ore loads." |
Paul Erspamer posted five photos with the comment:
"In 1931, Milwaukee contracted with the Edward E. Gillen Company to dredge a marshy area west of Jones Island that connected with the Kinnickinnic River. Initial plans called for a mooring basin wide enough to handle 10 vessels. It was later enlarged. Milwaukee's mooring basin became the winter home for several boats of U.S. Steel's Pittsburgh Steamship Company, which operated the largest fleet on the Lakes. These were referred to as "tin stackers" because of their distinctive silver smokestacks.
The winter of 1938-39 was a record year for Milwaukee's mooring basin. It hosted 27 boats, 22 of which were 'tin stackers.'" https://onmilwaukee.com/…/art…/great-lakes-tin-stackers.html
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| 2, duplicates his post above |
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| Paul Rabenhorst posted The Milwaukee winter harbor, 1940. |
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| safe_image for 13 vintage images of the Port of Milwaukee |
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| Dennis Stanczak posted Union Pacific 702 switches Cargill Salt on Jones Island, Milwaukee WI with the Edwin H Gott laid up for winter. 2/19/2015. Dennis DeBruler  Given the Lafarge cement silo in the background, this photo was shot from the southwest corner of the Cargill Salt building looking Northish.Note that we can see the top of the propellers of both of the winterized boats. They must store them with empty ballast tanks. This is also a good view of the self-unloader. |
Or does Lafarge store salt instead of cement in that silo given that the following post indicates that ship is unloading salt.? Note that the Calcite II is unloading with air instead of its conveyor.
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| Greg Mross posted Calcite II in Milwaukee, WI 7/97. Unloading salt at Jones Island. My photo for a change! James Maierle: This is kind of long but reminds me of a [kind of] funny story I figured someone here might get a chuckle out of. I'm almost positive that's the one a buddy and I almost got sucked into the propeller of when we were in high school back in the 90s in the Portage Canal. Summer time, just after sunset, can't remember what year, 93-95 or so. My dad was at his boat docked near the S. entry light and called us on the hand held radio we had (no cell of course) that it was coming up the channel because he figured we'd like to get a look at it. We had been camping out along shore a mile or so up the channel and wanted to get closer in the zodiac to see it come by and maybe get a picture. Saw it coming around the first bend looking awesome all lit up, spotlight sweeping back and forth on the shoreline on either side as it approached. We got in the zodiac and went to go to a spot where we'd be out of the main channel but could still see it go by closer than we were at. We were near a very narrow dredged out stretch next to what is essentially a long skinny artificial island that was created when they took a bend out of the channel just before it opens up into Portage Lake. The motor was off and we were just sitting there looking up at the pilothouse going past us and we waved at some people up on deck who waved back. I snapped a picture but my crappy 35mm camera didn't end up getting it. Just then I looked at the shoreline and noticed we were moving pretty fast and picking up speed, INTO the channel where previously we were at a dead stop and it was totally calm, no wind. We were quite a distance away but the amount of water it displaced ended up coming around behind us in the little tributary (the "old" channel) where we were back a ways watching it. At least that's what I thought was going on. I realized what was happening, had a moment of panic and my friend asked what was the problem; I told him, he saw what I was seeing and then he started freaking out too. Of course the little 3hp air cooled motor hadn't warmed up enough so it didn't want to restart right away after several pulls and messing with the choke I figured I flooded it, so I scrambled to the oars and started rowing frantically. That didn't work at all and now I could hear the propeller pounding away so I tried the motor again, which eventually started. I aimed for shore and beached it as fast as it would go. Then we just watched it sail off toward Portage Lake, lit up like a Christmas tree. Moral is - stay FAR away from these things in ship channels, I had no idea they could move so much water so quickly and how it behaves in a relatively confined area. To this day I still wonder what those folks on deck were thinking when they saw us there and watched us start to panic lol. If it wasn't this particular boat it looked exactly like it with the same paint scheme but I thought I recall seeing the name on the side just before things got interesting. Mark Thompson: I've seen many people standing along the edge of the St. Mary's River taking boat pictures and all the sudden the water is up to their knees. One of those things you usually don't do twice! |
Update: the silo holds cement. The salt pile belongs to Cargil Salt.
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| Tim Hansen posted The C&O Milwaukee Piggyback Terminal … I came across this while looking at some old Milwaukee harbor charts. The C&O for a number of years in the 1960’s and 1970’s had a piggyback facility at Milwaukee. As shown on the accompanying 1963 harbor chart, the Piggyback Terminal was located at the base of Jones Island north of East Lincoln Avenue, is shown on the 1963 and 1975 charts but is gone in the 1978 chart. I assume that the Terminal was built around 1960 when the C&O consolidated their Milwaukee operations at Jones Island and had a switch engine stationed there to service the rail yard and ferries and was abandoned sometime after 1975 when the C&O filed for abandonment of the car ferry services and before 1978 when it’s not shown on the charts. Does anyone know the history of this terminal or have pictures of what it looked like? Map Credit: Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library Andrew Roth shared Craig Holmberg: https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../c-and-gtw... |
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| Matthew James posted The beautiful veteran Alpena is off loading at the Holcim silo. |
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| Korey Garceau posted Alpena backs towards Milwaukee's inner harbor to unload cement at Holcim. 8/27/23 [Evidently Holcim is now Lafarge.] |
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| 1 of 3 photos posted by Tim Keefe with the comment: "Good morning! Sunrise this morning, 7/21/22, sees two classic lakers in Milwaukee at the same time. The Kaye E Barker is in port delivering limestone from Stoneport, MI, while the Alpena delivers a load of cement from Alpena, MI." Peter Richards: Plenty of quality limestone comes from northeast Michigan. Conveniently deposited near the surface of the land, and adjacent to the lake, makes for easy mining and transport. |
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| 1 of 7 photos posted by Aaron Erickson Couple nice shots of Alpena arriving in Milwaukee 09/05/2022. She's been very busy this year! Tim Mousseau: Anyone know how many boats the cement plant is running now? Use to be Huron Portland Cement but don’t know the current name. Brian Shorkey: Tim Mousseau 1 boat the Alpena. 2 tug and barges. John Thompson: Tim Mousseau it’s LaFarge now. Don’t know how many they’re running. Moving to tug, barge systems. Less expensive to run, much smaller crew required. [Alpena is going under the Hoan Bridge.] |
There is another cement plant at the south end of the bay.
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| Jerry Whitman posted A two’fer in Milwaukee last night. The Alpena and Algoma Intrepid unloading cement and salt respectively. |
Peter Daniels posted four photos with the comment: "Algoma Innovator delivering salt in Milwaukee today [Nov 27, 2023] …"
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| safe_image for OnMilwaukee On this day in 1953, the railroad finally arrived on Jones Island |
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| Wisconsin Marine Historical Society updated
During the winter of 1948-49, sixteen of Pittsburgh Steamship’s 61 freighters laid up at Milwaukee. Amateur photographer Dr. Lewis S. Buttles captured this image at the Kinnickinnic mooring basin.
When several steel makers combined to form United States Steel in 1901, marine operations were consolidated in the Pittsburgh Steamship Company, a subsidiary of the steel giant. By far the largest on the Lakes, the Pittsburgh fleet in 1901 included 112 vessels: 69 steamers and 43 barges.
Pittsburgh Steamship still managed the largest fleet on the Lakes in 1949. The company would run 61 vessels that year, nine of which had sailed with the original fleet in 1901. All Pittsburgh boats still used coal. The company would begin installing oil-fired boilers the following year.
In 1981, Pittsburgh Steamship became a common carrier and was renamed the USS Great Lakes Fleet. Known today as the CN Great Lakes Fleet, it is owned by Canadian National and operates nine self-unloading bulk carriers.
PHOTO CREDIT: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. Raul Rabenhorst shared |
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| Danny Thompson shared Jim Nemecky Those flat deckers were fine vessels to sail! Wisconsin Marine Historical Society post
Standing Watch
A solitary figure looks over Milwaukee’s winter fleet in early 1938.
Twenty-eight boats laid up at Milwaukee during the winter of 1937-38. This was down from 37 the previous winter. The decline was due in part to concerns about water depth in the municipal mooring basin. Depth was a consideration because some vessels were stored with a full cargo of coal or grain. The city completed emergency dredging in the mooring basin by early November. Pittsburgh steamship, which had threatened to cancel arrangements for wintering 24 coal and ore boats here, did send 14 vessels.
Steamship companies were charged 5-cents per foot each month for space in the mooring basin. The harbor commission typically collected more than $4,000 for the city in rental fees. In addition vessel owners usually spent at least $300,000 in Milwaukee for repairs and new equipment.
PHOTO CREDITS: Unless otherwise noted, Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society. Al Miller posted The Milwaukee Journal of Jan. 17, 1938, ran this photo with the following cutline: "The 'fleets in' and how! Packed like proverbial sardines in a can are Great Lakes freighters laid up for the winter in the Jones Island basin." I can't make out many names here, but the boat to the left of where the man is standing is the Henry Phipps. Forward on the port side of the Phipps is the A. F. Harvey. All told it appears at least 14 Tin Stackers are tied up here. Photo from my collection. Wayne Niebroski: That must have been some great ship navigating feat by both the vessels and the tugs to get those huge ships so close together! Amazing! |
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| American-Rails.com posted Chicago & North Western E8A #5026-A departs from Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the 1950s. Bill Kloss shared Aaron Terres: Looks like BF Affleck and possibly Col. James M. Schoonmaker Michael Roarty: BF Affleck [Note the grain elevator in the left background.] |
BF Affleck is not in this port, but I saw it the same day that I saw it in the above photo.
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| Al Miller posted B. F. Affleck makes an early season departure from Duluth on April 3, 1970. This photo was shot from the raised span on the Aerial Lift Bridge. It appeared in the Duluth News-Tribune and is part of my collection. Jeff Milligan: . . . Coal Bunker Piled Up High . . . |
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| safe_image for 12 vintage photos of Milwaukee's Harbor District at work Milwaukee at work in what is now being redeveloped and transformed as the Harbor District. This was a major Lake Michigan waterfront industrial area. |
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| Jon LaFantaine posted S.T. Crapo with the Lewis G. Harriman arriving behind her In Milwaukee, WI on 9-6-93 Forrest Erkkila: Going back to 1993 the S T Crapo a leader of the cement boats thank you Jon. [I'm guessing these were docked somewhere along Jones Island.] |
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| safe_image for Urban spelunking: Advance Boiler & Tank site on Jones Island |
2 of the 13 images posted by Brendon Baillod.
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| b Another view of this elevator. |
This posting by Paul Erspamer about laying up lake freighters includes several photos of boats in the Milwaukee harbor.
5 Jeremy Whitman photos of ships and ships in town on Sep 27, 2022
26 Ken Morrison photos of the Sep 27, 2022 action
20 Ken Morrison photos on Feb 4, 2023, this would be layups for the big boats. Shows two bow thrusters and the upper part of the props on the Stewart J. Cort.
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