National Museum of the Great Lakes

If you happen to ponder the amount of fresh water in all the world, you might be surprised that more than 80% of that water is contained in the Great Lakes. The National Museum of the Great Lakes provides a unique glimpse at those lakes from the time that Native America learned to ply those waters in handmade birch bark canoes up to the large sea-going cargo tankers moving raw materials like Appalachia-mined coal, or iron ore, to the 1000s of other minerals and agricultural products to the world. The Great Lakes is a world resource and the National Museum of the Great Lakes gives a glimpse into that resource.

The National Museum of the Great Lakes opened in the spring of 2014 along the banks of the Maumee River and in combination with the museum ship SS. Col. James M. Schoonmaker (formerly named the S.S. Willis B. Boyer). The new museum that was formerly located in Vermillion, Ohio, now has an extensive floor space devoted to artifacts, educational displays, and hands-on exhibits.

Propeller from the John Sherwin, built in 1958 by the American Ship Building Co., Toledo.

Located along the deep-water port of Toledo on the Maumee River, the National Museum of the Great Lakes combines an informative and enjoyable experience exploring not only the history of water travel across the Great Lakes of North America

A life ring from the Edmund Fitzgerald and a recovered life raft are on display in the museum as are a number of other historic artifacts associated with ships and shipping on the Great Lakes.

1904 Photo of Grandon, Put-in-Bay
(Right) A 1910 megaphone on display at the National Museum of the Great Lakes is an artifact demonstrating how ships' crew communicated with passing ships and crew members before radios and bull horns were in use. Above 1904 photo shows a crew member of the tug Grandon using a megaphone to communicate with the Steamer Frank E. Kirby Flyer of the Lakes, unloading passengers in Put-in-Bay.
In the "Shipwrecks & Safety" display in the Great Lakes Museum in Toledo, there is a photograph of the Steamer Grandon being recovered after sinking.

Col. James M. Schoonmaker

The Col. James M. Schoonmaker was built at the Great Lakes Engineering Works of Ecorse, Michigan at a cost of about $400,000. She was christened by Gretchen Schoonmaker daughter of the ship’s namesake. At the time of her launching in 1911, the Schoonmaker was unsurpassed in both size and elegance and was the largest ship operating on the Great Lakes until 1914.

The Schoonmaker regularly carried an estimated 14,000 tons of iron ore fields of Lake Superior, delivering them to the docks at Ashtabula where they would be transferred to rail cars destined for the steel mills in Pittsburgh.

View from the Bridge of the Col. James M. Schoonmaker

The ship remained with the Snenango Furnace Company until 1969 when it was sold to the Interlake Steam Ship Company and then a few years later it was sold to the Cleveland Cliff's Iron Company. At that time she was rechristened the Willis B. Boyer (the Cleveland Cliff's Iron Company president). At that time it was repainted and remained in service until 1980.

Pilot House of the steam powered Col. James M. Schoonmaker

In 1987 Toledo purchased the ship with the intention of making it a museum ship. In 2011, at the exact time and date of her original christening, plus 100 years, she was rechristened once again the Col. James M. Schoonmaker. Today the ship is part of the National Museum of the Great Lakes. While the museum is open year round, the ship is only open for tours from May through October and requires an additional ticket.