06/16/2006

Record-Eagle/Sheri McWhirter
These Mackinac Bridge fare tokens honor car ferries that once plied the straits, Vacationland, left, and Straits of Mackinac, right.

New tokens for bridge fare salute the era of car ferries

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

sherimcwhirter@hotmail.com

ST. IGNACE — Nearly 50 years after the Mackinac Bridge opened to traffic, state officials will honor the car ferries that formerly shuttled traffic between Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

Robert Sweeney couldn't be happier.

His father was Aaron "Mickey" Sweeney, captain of the Vacationland ferry until the bridge opened in November 1957. It was one of eight ferries that worked the Straits of Mackinac beginning in 1923.

The other vessels were the Ariel (1923), Sainte Ignace (1924), Mackinaw City (1924), Straits of Mackinac (1928), City of Cheboygan (1937), City of Munising (1938) and the City of Petoskey (1940). The Vacationland was commissioned in 1952.

Those ferries moved about 1 million cars a year, while today as many as 4.5 million vehicles annually cross the Mackinac Bridge.

Sweeney is the top state administrator at the bridge and was born and raised in St. Ignace. He said he can't remember a time when the bridge wasn't there, but his older siblings sure can.

"They would sell ground bologna sandwiches to the people waiting for the ferry and called them ham sandwiches," Sweeney said.

Cars would back up for as many as 20 miles on both peninsulas during busy times, Sweeney said, especially summer months and hunting season.

"Before hunting season, they'd get huge backups (in Mackinaw City), sometimes all the way to Cheboygan. Sometimes people had to wait overnight in their cars," he said.

Clever gas station owners even delivered petroleum to backed-up cars using hoses that were hundreds of feet long, Sweeney said.

It's that colorful northern Michigan history that state officials hope to extol with eight new golden bridge tokens, each good for one trip across the Mighty Mac.

About 400,000 regular bridge tokens are in circulation, mostly used by frequent commuters and local residents.

"What we're finding is that they're not all coming back to us. People are keeping them as souvenirs," Sweeney said.

So 35,000 of the new commemorative car ferry tokens were minted this year.