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West Side Ferry Landings/West Shore Ferry

Photograph
Simmons negative number 405, 687, 764 The West Side Ferry was a canopied motor boat that ran between downtown Saugatuck (at the foot to Butler St), Douglas (Point Pleasant) and the west side of Kalamazoo Lake (at the foot of Campbell Road and Ferry St., where Saugatuck Yacht club is in 2022). They ferry was often used by Lakeshore people to get downtown. A large sign-like board was used to hail the ferry. Index text: 405 0/1 Douglas - churches, ferry 7/1945 Ferry landing near old St. Peter’s 697 0/1 Saugatuck - ferry West side ferry 764 0/1 Saugatuck - ferry 8/1944 West side ferry land From photographic negatives created by William R. Simmons, editor of the Commercial Record newspaper between 1941 and 1961. More information may be in the 2001 SDHS book "Off the Record" Kit Lane's note, "405 Ferry landing near bridge, probably people on way to church at the old St. Peters church, west side ferry, 1945"
HM West side ferry dock.jpg 735KB; The sign next to the men was used to signal the ferry.
405 0/1 Douglas - churches, ferry 7/1945 Ferry landing near old St. Peter’s; View of Point Pleasant in Douglas, upriver from Blue Star Bridge. The new bridge is visible at the far right of the image. 697 0/1 Saugatuck - West side ferry landing with the motorized ferry boat; 39A389 ca 1943 The Isabel at the ferry landing – foot of Butler Street George B. Tisdale was a Great Lakes sailor. He retired from the Lakes and took over running the West Shore as a ferry between downtown Saugatuck, Douglas and the west side of Kalamazoo Lake during the last illness of the boat's owner, John Campbell. In 1927 Tisdale built the Isabel (named for his daughter), from a Bay City company's pre-cut kit. When the late Robert Wolbrink was a youngster he used to like to sit with Captain Tisdale on a bench at the end of the dock near the Tisdale house (now the Deer Creek Bed and Breakfast) on the southwest shore of Kalamazoo Lake. From there they could see the semaphore signals at the foot of Butler Street, and near the old swing bridge into Douglas that meant that there was a customer waiting. Wolbrink said that Tisdale once told him that he had given up sailing on the Great Lakes because it was making a drunkard of him, since whiskey was the only possible way to keep warm on a drafty lumber boat. According to Wolbrink, Tisdale also had a large red nose that made his story even more believable. West Side Ferry.jpg 442KB; 697 cropped file601.jpg 859KB

2022.21.405

West Shore FerryBridge, Blue Star Highway 1936

These rather rickety-looking piers with benches where passengers could hop aboard the West Side Ferry, a canopied motor boat that ran between downtown Saugatuck (at the foot to Butler St), Douglas (Point Pleasant) and the west side of Kalamazoo Lake (at the foot of Campbell Road and Ferry St., where Saugatuck Yacht club is in 2022). They ferry was often used by Lakeshore people to get downtown. A large sign-like board was used to hail the ferry. Active circa 1945.

William (Bill) Simmons

Winthers, Sally

194 Simmons Negatives

Simmons, William "Bill" R. 1890/1-1966Tisdale, George B. 1874-1961

03/13/2022

08/31/2024