St. Ignace Downtown History

The four large cylinder shaped structures that you see in place out in the bay are called "mooring dolphins". A dolphin is "a man-made marine structure that extends above the water level and is not connected to shore". These particular dolphins were built in 1957 to provide a mooring facility for Great Lakes tanker ships carrying jet fuel to the area to be offloaded.
Connected to one of the mooring dolphins was a pipeline that traveled underwater and carried the jet fuel from the tanker ships to above ground storage tanks, which were previously located on the St. Ignace shoreline. The jet fuel was stored in, and pumped from these onshore storage tanks through an underground pipeline directly to the now defunct Kinross Air Force Base (also known as Kincheloe AFB) located 37 miles north of St. Ignace. The AFB was used for national defense as a refueling base for Alaska-bound aircraft and as a base for the defense of the Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

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The Chief Dock
Antique Railroad Bell
The Chief Dock Kiosk
France at Mackinac
Heritage of Fishermen in this Area
State Ferries, 1923-1957
William H. Barnum
People and the Great Lakes
State Ferry Service
Michigan State Ferry

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