MUNISING, MI – The beacon that guided ships through dangerous waters for a century, called in volunteers from across the country to help restore its foundation this fall. The East Channel Lighthouse near Grand Island’s eastern passage is one of the few surviving historic schoolhouse-style lighthouses in the Great Lakes region. After weathering Lake Superior storms for 158 years it was in major need of some TLC.

In 2021, the Hiawatha National Forest staff recognized both the cultural and economic importance of the forest’s six lighthouses and applied for Great American Outdoors Act funding to restore and restabilize these historic icons. This September, volunteers from six states, including both Michigan peninsulas, joined the three-week restoration project in the U.P. The volunteers came with a range of experience. Among them was a mason, several carpenters, two historic architects, architectural historians, and a retired architect. “Others joined with a learning spirit,” the U.S. Forest Service said in a press release. Together, they camped on the mainland and traveled by boat each day to the lighthouse.

At the worksite, volunteers underwent the process of “painstakingly hammering and chiseling Portland cement from between each sandstone foundation blocks.”

The lighthouse’s wooden structure was built in 1868 with locally acquired sandstone and timber. In a nontraditional move, Portland cement was used as a binding agent instead of mortar. “This cement causes the sandstone to crack and spall when exposed to the stresses caused by annual freeze and thaw cycles. Between the cement and extreme environmental conditions, the foundation of the lighthouse had become degraded and unstable,” according to the U.S. Forest Service.

After chiseling out the old Portland cement, volunteers repointed the sandstone with a historically appropriate mortar. The new mortar recipe was chosen to match the color of the sandstone and allow the foundation of the building to remain weathertight through the seasons, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

“After three weeks of work, fueled by good music, great views, new friends and plenty of coffee, the foundation was finally completed. Between clean-up and handshakes, volunteers reflected on the hours spent staring at sandstone rocks and Lake Superior, and the dedication to a project that required them to stand all the way up and stretch,” the Forest Service wrote.

Phase two of the project is planned for next year and will focus on repairing the lighthouse roof, soffits and facia.

The Forest Service is working with the restoration nonprofit HistoriCorps to mobilize volunteers for these lighthouse projects. The nonprofit previously assisted numerous historic preservation projects on the Hiawatha, including the Point Iroquois Lighthouse stabilization project that concluded in 2023.

Find more details about this project and upcoming volunteer opportunities at historicorps.org.

CLEVELAND, OH – The Port of Cleveland is set to welcome its final cruise ship of the 2026 season Sunday as the Victory I arrives at the docks and caps a record-setting year for Great Lakes cruising. The arrival will mark the port’s 54th vessel call of the season, surpassing the previous record of 53 calls set in 2025. It is the second consecutive year Cleveland has set a new record for cruise ship visits.

The cruise season, which ran from April through October, brought more than 9,500 passengers to Northeast Ohio, according to the Port of Cleveland. Visitors were able to explore a range of attractions across the region, including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, West Side Market and Ohio’s Amish Country.

Great Lakes cruising also brings an economic benefit to Northeast Ohio. Each passenger is estimated to spend about $100 to $130 during a visit, generating an estimated $1.2 million in economic impact this season.

“The continued growth of Great Lakes cruising is an exciting opportunity for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio,” said David Gutheil, chief operating officer of the Port of Cleveland. “Setting a new record for vessel calls for the second consecutive year speaks to the appeal of our region and the importance of maintaining the infrastructure and services needed to welcome visitors to our waterfront,”

The Port of Cleveland began welcoming cruise ships to its docks in 2017. Since then, investments in port infrastructure — including a dedicated U.S. Customs facility — have strengthened its ability to accommodate passenger vessels and support the growth of Great Lakes cruising, port officials said.

WKYC-TV

DULUTH, MN – Duluth Cargo Connect was named 2026 Port/Terminal Operator of the Year at the Heavy Lift Awards in London, earning the global honor for the second time in seven years. Presented by Heavy Lift & Project Forwarding International, the award recognizes port authorities and terminal operators for proactive investment and initiatives that advance the handling of heavy-lift and project cargo.

Duluth Cargo Connect, a working partnership of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority and Lake Superior Warehousing, was selected by an international judging panel of project cargo shippers, freight forwarders, ocean carriers and industry analysts from a shortlist that also included operators in the Netherlands and Italy.

Duluth’s entry detailed a $19.4 million pier redevelopment that turned an out-of-service, century-old grain terminal property into an expansion of the Clure Public Marine Terminal for heavy-lift and project cargo. Completed in 2025, the most recent work included a $10.5 million reconstruction of Berths 10 and 11, which added 1,200 lineal feet of steel dock wall, new bollard and reinforced concrete decking.

The rebuilt berths entered service in April, when the tug Meredith Ashton and a 240-foot deck barge carrying project cargo became the first vessel in decades to dock at Berth 10.

Duluth Cargo Connect also invested $2 million in nine new forklifts, including a 70-ton capacity unit, and $750,000 in U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection infrastructure to speed container and cargo clearance. Warehousing capacity expanded to more than 800,000 square feet with new construction and addition of facilities.

“This award recognizes more than one project or one season,” said Kevin Beardsley, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. “It reflects decades of commitment from past Port Authority leadership, our state and federal partners and the team at Lake Superior Warehousing, all of whom helped turn an abandoned pier into productive, modern infrastructure built to serve our breakbulk, heavy-lift and project cargo customers. Earning this honor a second time reflects how that commitment is paying dividends.”

The site’s transformation spanned more than 30 years. A grain terminal constructed on the pier in 1907 closed in the 1980s, and the Port Authority demolished it in 1997. Reconstruction of the cleared site began in 2015, supported by a $10 million U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER grant, and the property was renamed the Clure Terminal Expansion pier in 2016 after completion of a truck- and rail-served roll-on/roll-off dock. The latest berth work was supported by the U.S. Maritime Administration and the Minnesota Legislature.

The 26-acre pier now provides four heavy-lift-capable berths. Together with the adjacent Clure Terminal, Duluth Cargo Connect offers six heavy-lift berths, 300-ton mobile cranes, twin rail-mounted gantry cranes with 120-ton tandem-lift capability and more than 40 acres of secured outdoor laydown space. That capacity supported wind energy cargo records in 2019 and 2020.

The terminal’s inland connections carry that capacity well beyond the docks. On-dock rail is served directly by four Class I railroads: BNSF, CN, CPKC and Union Pacific. Duluth is a two-time winner of the Railway Industrial Clearance Association’s Port of the Year Award, a recognition determined by the shippers, carriers and clearance specialists who move dimensional cargo by rail. Landside assets also include purpose-built first- and last-mile connections linking the terminal directly to Interstate 35 and U.S. Highway 53, including routes for permitted overweight and dimensional loads.

Much of the work surrounding a project cargo move can take place on site. CBP inspection is available at the terminal, which operates within Foreign Trade Zone No. 51, and Duluth Cargo Connect provides tailor-made services ranging from custom crating and component separation to inventory management, ship parceling and trucking coordination.

“For heavy-lift and project cargo customers, the big lift is just a fraction of the job,” said Jonathan Lamb, president of Duluth Cargo Connect. “At our facility, the Seaway connection, the rail, the highway, customs and our people are all right there. That means personalized service from a high-quality workforce, custom solutions, fewer handoffs and a more direct path inland from North America’s farthest-inland seaport.”

Duluth Cargo Connect first earned Port/Terminal Operator of the Year honors in 2019 in Antwerp, Belgium. Judges at the time cited its safe and efficient handling of oversized cargo, investment in new equipment and facilities, maintenance of existing infrastructure and commitment to minimizing customer wait times.

Business North

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society will host an Edmund Fitzgerald memorial ceremony on Tuesday, Nov.10, at 7pm. This event will be a private memorial for surviving Fitzgerald family members and individuals connected to the ship and its crew. This memorial service will be livestreamed, so please watch this website and our social media for the (livestream) link. There will not be a daytime event in 2026. Please visit www.shipwreckmuseum.com for more information.

Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society

WELLAND CANAL – Nearly 25 million tonnes of cargo passed through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System by the end of September, up 3.5 per cent compared to the same time last year. It’s the second positive increase of the 2026 season, which began with March openings of the Welland Canal and Montreal-Lake Ontario sections of the 3,700-kilometre-long waterway.

Latest figures released by St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. showed dry bulk shipments were the biggest mover on the seaway, up 20.26 per cent. Dry bulk consists of commodities such as stone/gravel, sand, salt, cement, potash and gypsum.

Snider Dock Services, which operates as Port Colborne Marine Terminal Inc., on the east side of the Welland Canal, handles bulk goods including road salt and synthetic gypsum. It has received several shipments of both commodities this year.

General cargo, which includes iron, steel slabs, machinery and wind turbines, has fallen 10.8 per cent, followed by coal, down 6.47 per cent. Liquid bulk shipments, which include gasoline, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, ethanol and biodiesel, decreased four per cent compared to the same time last year. Iron ore fell 3.4 per cent, and grain, the top commodity shipped on the seaway last year, was down three per cent.

Ship traffic has increased, with 2,719 vessels, including lakers, ocean-going ships, tugs and barges, transiting the system. That’s 138 more than by the end of September last year.

Dave Johnson/Welland Tribune

DULUTH, MN. – Science lovers got the opportunity of a lifetime on Wednesday. They got to board the Lake Explorer II, a Great Lakes research vessel and learn about their operations up close. The vessel is associated with the Environmental Protection Agency.

“You look around at the beauty behind us, right? Of everybody knows how magical the Great Lakes are,” said Teresa Booeshagi, Associate Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency. “It’s important for us to be able to protect these natural resources and make sure that they sustain into the future for our next generations.”

View the KQDS-TV video report here

MANISTEE, MI – Manistee Harbor Tours will wrap up its 2026 sailing season with special fall color cruises aboard the Princess of Manistee this weekend and next weekend, offering passengers an opportunity to view the autumn scenery along Lake Michigan and the Manistee River. The two-hour cruises are scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 24-25, and again Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. These will be the final scheduled cruises of the year for the 65-foot passenger vessel.

Capt. Albert “Wally” Laaksonen, owner of Manistee Harbor Tours, said the cruises will depart from the Manistee City Marina, 426 River St., along the Riverwalk in downtown Manistee. Each excursion will begin with a trip down the Manistee River to the Manistee Harbor Lighthouse, where the captain will evaluate conditions on Lake Michigan before determining the route. Depending on wind and wave conditions, the Princess will travel either north or south along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

Read more here.

SUPERIOR, WI – A big moment for Fraser Industries, which includes Fraser Shipyards, in Superior. On Wednesday, they hosted an event to share they are being sold to Wildcat Equity Partners. Fraser’s CEO Patrick Kelly shared it also means $350 million in investment here.

“For everyone in this room, all of our employees, it means a more secure job, a bigger job, and opportunities under new ownership that comes with that investment and growth. I’m pleased to report as well our current ownership team is staying on. We’re very much part of this plan going forward. We’re gratified to the Wildcat team that they’re actually investing in our blueprint, and we’re excited to see it come to fruition,” Kelly said.

Eric Nicolaides from Wildcat shared this. “Wildcat is acquiring Fraser because we believe its best years can still be ahead of it. We see an experienced workforce, a respected business, and a capability this country needs more of, not less. We want to invest in it, and we want to help it grow.”

Crews at Fraser work on the big lakers that brings the cargo like iron ore down to the steel mills. Right now, the company has the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Spar in the drydock facility.

The company announced in August that they have a Memorandum of Understanding with HD Hyundai out of Korea. Fraser will become a demonstration model for rebuilding the U.S. shipbuilding industry.

They also are part of a landmark partnership between the American Great Lakes Ports Association and the Great Lakes Alliance Shipyards. Fraser has been part of the maritime landscape on Lake Superior for more than 130 years.

WDIO
Read the story here and view a video.

MONROE, MI – When an engine runs quietly, it doesn’t attract much attention. The same goes for economic engines. Take Great Lakes and inland river ports across the United States. They do not draw much national attention, but there is much happening. In fact, Great Lakes and river ports are leveraging their collective essentiality to craft new strategies and build new infrastructure.

There are roughly 12,000 ports, private terminals and other navigation facilities nationwide, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and possibly many more. Aimee Andres, executive director of the Inland Rivers, Ports and Terminals, Inc. trade group, says there are 93 inland river ports, and 71 Great Lakes ports; although there is no official tally, the number of private terminals in the U.S. “is in the tens of thousands,” Andres says. The American Society of Civil Engineers has called those ports the “hidden backbone of the nation’s freight network.” For example, American Great Lakes ports handle about 140 million tons annually, directly or indirectly supporting about 147,350 jobs. Inland river ports and transportation services employ about 127,500 workers and generate $36 billion in income annually while handling about 500 million tons of cargo, according to a recent study.

“When most people think about maritime, they think about the seaports, but cargo does not stop at those ports of import, and it certainly doesn’t begin at the ports of exports,” Andres says, pointing out that inland ports as well as private terminals are crucial.

There’s room for growth, however, and various Great Lakes and river ports are implementing projects supported by the federal government and others. The highlights, among many others, include a $774- million U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) grant award announced in April 2026, which is funding infrastructure improvements at Baton Rouge, Memphis, and Duluth-Superior, Minnesota, and elsewhere.

Also, industry groups are exploring new ways to increase cargo moving between the Great Lakes and inland rivers. And there is accelerating development of dry ports, meaning inland logistics facilities accessed by rail and trucks and linked to maritime ports, such as those in Greer and Dillon, both in South Carolina, and which are connected directly to the Port of Charleston. Wet or dry, there is much happening.

The Port of Monroe, Michigan, an intermodal port on Lake Erie, is one of the standouts.The port, which already generates roughly $121 million in local income and spending and $38.5 million in federal, state and local tax revenues, is actively creating new opportunities. The port has been implementing a number of projects fueled by federal, state, county and city funding.

Port Director Paul LaMarre, citing the growth in facilities and cargo, says such progress at Monroe makes it “the biggest little port on the Great Lakes, or the little port that can.”

Right now, the port is turning a 12-acre site into the first international border entry point container terminal on the Great Lakes. The terminal, slated to open by 2027, is designed to provide a new gateway to international markets through the St. Lawrence Seaway. The port’s initiatives were boosted by a $15- million U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) grant announced in April 2026 by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who advocated for the grant award. The award follows on the heels of another DOT grant for $11 million that Monroe’s port received in 2022. Peters says the grant will help “position the port at the cutting edge of Great Lakes shipping. These investments will help strengthen our supply chains, support good-paying jobs and create more economic opportunity for communities across our state.”

Monroe Mayor Robert Clark characterizes the changes at the port in recent years as “a complete transformation” that is bringing “economic and community benefits to the city of Monroe and this region.” The benefits include about 850 local residents, or 75% of the 1,136 people, employed by companies operating on the port, including Gerdau, DTE and Ventower Industries, says LaMarre.

As LaMarre says, “The ultimate success story is when you have created investment, job and tax revenue for the local community.” He adds that “investing in port infrastructure and in the people who support it will pay exponential dividends for communities and for national strength and economic sustainability.”

USA Today

BARBEAU, MI – The Eastern Upper Peninsula Transportation Authority (EUPTA) is advising Neebish Island residents and visitors that the Neebish Islander Ill will be running on a limited schedule, effective immediately.

This is due to an incident Tuesday morning while encountering dense fog conditions. The end result to the vessel damage is a sheared rudder shaft, and the loss of one of its two rudders. The United States Coast Guard has given the Neebish Islander Ill permission to run on one rudder with the following special conditions. To ensure safety while providing vital transportation, the Neebish Islander Ill Ferry will have the following special operating conditions:

Limited schedule: A small number of back-to-back runs in the morning to transport residents off the island, and a corresponding set of evening runs to return them. The morning runs will tentatively begin at 7:30 a.m. and will continue until all traffic is cleared. This is pending there are not any fog or visibility conditions hindering movement. The evening runs will tentatively begin at 6 p.m. and will continue until all traffic is cleared. This is pending there are not any fog or visibility conditions hindering movement.
Vehicle restrictions: Passenger vehicles only, as vehicles will need to back off the ferry boat.
Capacity limit: A maximum of eight vehicles per trip.
No trailers: Trailers will not be permitted.
Weight and size limits: No oversize or excessively heavy loads will be accepted.
Favorable weather only: Operations will be suspended during adverse weather, requiring no or very little fog, good visibility, sustained winds under 20 mph, and gusts under 25 mph.
Daylight hours only: No operations after dark.
Emergency runs: EUPTA has been granted permission to run outside of the above restrictions in the event of emergencies.

All vehicles will need to back off the ferry when unloading. This is a necessity due to running on one rudder. The unusual nature of this unloading will require all customers to travel at their own risk of vehicle damage. The special operating conditions will last approximately two weeks to give EUPTA time to schedule, coordinate, and make repairs. For the most up-to-date information please refer to www.eupta.net/ferry-svstem/eupta-delays-and-cancellations, Neebish Island Ferry Facebook page, delays and cancellations hotline: 906-632-1516.

Soo Today