ABOVE: The Chief Wawatam burned about 40 tons of coal a day when sailing, all of which was shoveled into the six boilers by hand. In summer it used only two 13-foot diameter propellers in the stern, but in winter it used an additional 12-foot propeller in the bow to aid icebreaking. TOP RIGHT: In the pilot house, except for a few modern additions such as radar, gyrocompass, and radio, the scene is probably one that Mark Twain would have recognized. Wheelman Gordon Trainer is at the helm at the Chief approaches the end of its journey at St. Ignace. RIGHT: The Chief Wawatam arrives at the Soo Line connection at St. Ignace on October 7, 1976.
he should have. I wish I had asked his name. The Chief Wawatam was approaching
St. Ignace when we climbed to the pi- lot house. Captain Roderick J. Graham greeted us with a friendly, “I was won- dering where you boys were.” When I explained we had spent much of the trip in the boiler room, he observed, “How about that? You haven’t seen anything like that since you saw the movie on the Titanic.” In those days, “the movie” was the 1958 “A Night to Remember,” based on Walter Lord’s 1956 book of the same name. While I did later re-visit Michigan Northern and the Straits of Mackinac, I never saw Chief Wawatam sail again.
End of the Line The loss of Chief Wawatam as Mich-
igan Northern’s upper connection was only one development that brought about the ultimate demise of the compa-
ny. On Tuesday, October 14, 1980 (four years before the end of carferry opera- tion), President Jimmy Carter signed the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 into law. The Staggers Act is generally credited with catapulting American railroads into a new era of deregulated prosperity. But since Michigan Northern’s freight rate “discount” was dependent on a quirk in ICC rate-making rules that disappeared after Staggers, the whole house of cards came tumbling down. The lumber traffic, which had supported Michigan North- ern, disappeared. At about the same time as the passing
of the Staggers Act, the State of Michi- gan began scaling down its rail subsidy program, which was becoming increas- ingly expensive. The state was then sub- sidizing not only the Michigan Northern and the Chief Wawatam, but also the Michigan Interstate Railroad, operators of the former Ann Arbor Railroad.
The total payments by the State of Michigan for MIGN’s track lease from Penn Central, operating deficits, and taxes peaked in fiscal year 1980-81 at just under $4.5 million. State funds pro- vided for the same expenses in 1981-82 were $3.6 million, a decrease of 20 per- cent. In February 1982, the State of Michi-
gan terminated the subsidy on 35 miles of Michigan Northern track between Pe- toskey and Mackinaw City. These funds paid for the rental of the track and prop- erty from Penn Central Corp. Michigan Northern determined that this northern connection with the Chief Wawatam and the Soo Line was critical to the entire op- eration and began paying the rental of $11,000 a month out of operating funds. But while the MIGN declined in some
parts of its operation, there was expan- sion in others. On February 20, 1982, the railroad took over operation of 37 miles
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