Michigan's Best Summer Job Is Cranking the Saugatuck Chain Ferry

Saugatuck — Michigan abounds with ferries. The Walpole Island ferry, which carries vehicles over the St. Clair River. The famous Mackinac Island ferries, shuttling tourists to and from the island. The Lake Express, taking travelers all the way across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin.

It’s not surprising for a state surrounded by so much water. Yet only one ferry in the state is truly unique, the last of its kind in North America.

Saugatuck’s chain ferry has a simple design, a floating barge powered by a hand-turned crank. This turns a gear shaft connected to a long metal chain, submerged from bank to bank across the Kalamazoo River.

Saugatuck’s ferry opened in 1857 and ran until 1940, when the company went out of business. A local businessman rebuilt the ferry in 1965, operating it as a private company before selling it to the city in 2005.

Human-powered ferries like this are a 19th-century technology. Most similar ferries were abandoned shortly after motor vehicles and automobile bridges became more common. This is, by all accounts, the last functional hand-cranked chain ferry in the United States.

In fact, there’s no electrical power on the ferry at all, save for a few battery-powered emergency lights that could be turned on if necessary. The experience is purely analog, a mechanical journey fueled by human sweat.

The ferry connects downtown Saugatuck to the opposite bank of the river, a street with boathouses and cottages dotting the shoreline. It’s the easiest, fastest way to get from the city over to the wilder areas like the stairs climbing Mount Baldhead and pathways over to Oval Beach.

In truth, it’s the only reasonable way to get over there by foot from downtown Saugatuck. Otherwise, you have to go all the way down south to the automobile bridge on the Blue Star Highway, a trek more suitable for driving.

This makes the chain ferry more than a historical relic or object of curiosity. Its design and history are very interesting, of course, given that it’s one of a kind. But it fits a necessary logistical purpose, one that Saugatuck desperately needs in the height of summer tourist season.

The ride costs $3 across each way, cash only. No credit card reader—another relic of the old days. It takes about five minutes to cross and leaves every 15 minutes or so, depending on how many riders crowd the shore.

During my transit in late May, I was the only rider each way. There were other groups waiting on the opposite bank both times, but due to luck or impeccable timing, I was alone with just the two ferry workers.

The ferry was staffed by two young men, college kids who seemed to really enjoy their job. Bright young men, turning the hand crank all day, ferrying people across the river. The job makes for an excellent back workout, if nothing else.

They’ll happily tell you all about the ferry, and its uniqueness. They’ll even let you turn the crank yourself for a while, if you ask. In fact, they’re totally happy to let you do the manual labor. One of them confided that once, for an entire day, the ferrygoers were so eager to turn the crank themselves that he never had to touch it.

It’s not terribly hard work, turning the thing a few times. There isn’t much resistance to the crank, and the ferry moves steadily across the river. After a minute or two, however, you do feel a little fatigue in your back.

Turning the crank for a whole crossing, or for multiple crossings day in and day out, is definitely tiresome work. Yet it seems like an idyllic summer job.

Saugatuck is beautiful on a summer day, and the best views of the narrow river and its shorelines are found on the ferry crossing. When you get out to the river and gaze up and down both ways, you see a totally unique view of the city reserved only for boaters.

The chain ferry isn’t anachronistic, it simply fills a functional need in the simplest possible way. People need to cross the river, and why bother with a motor to do it? Hire a few college kids to turn the crank and collect the tolls, and things work just as they did two centuries ago.

It’s a smart way of thinking, to boil things down to the simplest possible method. To hone in on efficiency, and stick with what works. The chain ferry fits this particular niche of Saugatuck’s infrastructure just fine, so keep on cranking.