Edith Jane

The loose term "Mackinaw Boat" originally referred to any small sailing craft used in the Straits of Mackinac. The rather flat bottom and shallow draft allowed Mackinaw Boats to be pulled up on the beach, making them an ideal work boat when harbors and docks were scarce.

Mackinaw Boats were remarkably seaworthy and were used to transport people or trade goods, to service commercial fisheries, for mail carrying and for carrying messages between steamships passing on the Straits. One story traces "Mackinaw Fishing Boats" back to the French fur traders, saying construction had been taken over by the Indians and the design had been handed down by them from generation to generation.

The "Edith Jane" was built in St. Ignace about 1899 by the Chenier family who settled in this area around 1830. She is 18' 8" long, has a 6' 4" beam and a 1' 6" draft at post. She is carvel planked with ³/₄" pine over sawn oak frames, displays a plumb stem, a strong sheer and a sharply raked sternpost.

A typical Mackinaw Boat, the "Edith Jane" was originally rigged as a gaff-ketch; she was fitted with a centerboard and a jib set on a plank bow-sprit. She had a short foredeck. Later she was converted to power and her gaff-ketch rig, bow-sprit and jib were stripped, her centerboard case was replaced with



an engine bed, and an inboard engine was installed. The tow ring was added at that time.

Donated to the City of St. Ignace by:
The Michilimackinac Historical Society

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Native American Land Losses
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Diving into History
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