Saginaw River Passage - March 25, 2025: Appledore IV/Appledore V

Bay City's own tall ship, Appledore IV, has been moved from her home dock at the North end of Wenonah Park, across the Saginaw River, and is now tied up at Veteran's Memorial Park, near Veteran's Memorial Bridge. After spending the 2024 season at the wall and covered up, it is encouraging to see work starting to be done to her. Word has it they are rigging her and preparing her for the 2025 season, with the possibility of participating in the Great Lakes Tall Ship Challenge Tour.

Meanwhile, the smaller Appledore V remains on the hard at Bay Harbor Marina in Bay City, tucked away far to the back of the property, while looking a little rough around the edges and waiting for better days.

Saginaw River Passage - March 21, 2025: Samuel de Champlain/Innovation

While you were sleeping... Early this morning, while many people were up at the Soo, waiting for the 8am opening of the locks for the season, Samuel de Champlain/Innovation quietly eased up the Saginaw River with little fanfare, arriving at the Holcim Cement Dock in Essexville around 4am, marking the first vessel and delivery of the 2025 shipping season. For the three Holcim workers and myself, who were there for the arrival, it was a beautiful morning, with clear skies and a light breeze. March 21, 2025

The 2025 shipping season is underway on the Saginaw River! There most likely will not be any vessel traffic through the Bay City bridges until after March 31st as Independence and Lafayette bridges are both closed to masted navigation until then, but we could still see a few more lower river deliveries before then.

Saginaw River Look Back - Agawa Canyon

Over the next three days, I will be featuring my photos of the three Algoma classics: Agawa Canyon, Algorail, and Algoway. All three were frequent visitors to the Saginaw River and fixtures here for many years. Starting today with Agawa Canyon, she last visited the Saginaw River on September 29th 2009. She laid up after the 2009 season was then towed to Aliaga, Turkey in 2010 for scrapping. The photos in this post start with the 2002 season, ending with the last photo from the 2009 season.

Saginaw River Report - March 3, 2025

Interesting fact: Back about mid-February, the road salt pile at the Sargent Dock in Zilwaukee ran out. This was the first time in five seasons there was no road salt left at the dock. Sargent normally gets their salt from Goderich, ON, delivered by Algoma boats. It will be interesting to see what the 2025 season brings for the dock. The empty dock photos were taken today, 3/3/25.