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(soft tinkling music)
- [SS Columbia] This river is my home.
I can tell you the names of every current and eddy
that flows along the shores of Boblo Island.
People call me Columbia.
And yes, I do have a sister, Claire.
We used to race this old river every summer.
(people cheering)
If you're from southeast Michigan or the tip of Ontario,
you may have caught a piece of our story,
a memory glinting in your mother's eyes.
An old sign by the river fading, but not forgotten.
Some say we're now haunted
by the spirits of passengers long since departed.
Others less romantic claim we've been torn up
and sold for scrap.
But Claire and I know the truth.
I want to tell you a story.
You might say it's a Detroit ferrytale starring
the oldest, surviving, passenger steamboats in America.
The sister ships of Boblo Island.
(upbeat music)
Once upon a time, they called our city,
the Paris of the Midwest.
It seemed like all eyes were on us.
Our cars could take you wherever you wanted to go,
and our music made the ride that much better.
But the most magical ride each year
was the summer voyage to Boblo Island.
(playful music) (amusement park sounds)
- Boblo had the Boblo bear.
(child growling)
Ride the train, remember riding the train around the island?
- Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. - I just would run.
- I remember the first time I was truly scared to death
was on their rollercoaster.
And looking back, it wasn't that big,
but back then it was like, it was a monster.
- The Boblo experience was the boat ride there.
- Getting on the boat, giving the man your little ticket
and you on the boat, you having fun, you partying.
- There was actually a Supreme Court ruling
about integration on the Boblo boat
that really did start to change history in America.
- Boblo Island is a Canadian island.
- This is how you know he's telling the truth.
- You know, you left the country, you know,
'cause you got on the boat, you traveled across the river.
It was really magical.
- [SS Columbia] For 80 years,
we were on a dedicated hour-and-a-half tour
between downtown Detroit and Boblo Island.
Although the park closed down in 1993, the memories live on.
- 50 Cub Scouts running around on the boat.
And we'd run up to Captain Boblo and say,
"Can we have a coloring book? Can we have a coloring book?"
- Captain Boblo, you know, he was maybe 4'4".
I wanna say his name was Joe Short.
Don't quote me on that, I think that was his name, yeah.
- He was like kid size, so that made him not scary.
- My favorite thing ever was the third floor dance floor.
Those were my jams.
I'll go into a pub now and I go to the jukebox.
My girlfriend's saying, "You're not doing
the Boblo Boat music, are you?"
And I'm like, "Oh, yes, yes, it's gonna happen."
- I always wanted to hover near an exit,
so that if we didn't have enough life jackets,
I could get off the boat and tread water.
- We were skiing around the Boblo boat naked,
watching people running from one side of the boat
to the other, to the point where the boat was listing.
Sorry, mom.
- The best part though, was taking the moonlight cruises.
The boat would be full,
but you could always find that one nook,
that one little corner somewhere where you could sit
and put your arm around your girl and...
- Her name was Serena Artiago. And we hugged and stuff.
- Were you on there as a young teenager kissing the boys
in a hidden section of the boat?
- I may have, at one time I'm sure I was.
- [Al] You only get to spend a few hours with them
then you never see 'em again.
- Never see 'em again.
(man laughs)
That was one good thing, you know.
- It was a part of summer, it was a changing of the season.
Some people watched for the robins to come back,
all the kids waited to hear the Boblo boat whistle.
(horn blares) (kids cheer)
- [SS Columbia] They hardly let our boilers cool overnight,
and that's the way I liked it.
But we should have known
that the spell wouldn't last forever.
(soft tinkling music)
(loud hiss from factory)
- All right, well, welcome to the Boblo Ste. Claire.
This is Kevin Mayer, Tony Laginess, and let's go take a walk
and show you the different things on the Ste. Claire.
What is it, 105 years old now?
It's 105-year-old engine,
so, it's actually older than Titanic.
This is the mechanism that used to take the anchors
down or up, it was steam operated.
But it was our backup plan,
so in case we ever started drifting away,
we would just unlock it and let the anchors drop.
And this is the part of the ship that everyone remembers,
especially when you were a kid.
Everybody remembers going up the grand staircase,
a nice brass railing.
You can see how beautiful this was.
All right, let's go upstairs.
So here's the team.
I own the boat, I'm the primary finance
behind the project, okay?
So, Mike Lewinski, actually has been with the boat project
longer than anybody.
If I come on the ship and say, "Ski, is there anyplace
that's weak right now?"
He'll tell me exactly what's changed
from when I was out previously, maybe three days ago.
He knows that structure.
Tony, first of all, knows a lot of people down river.
Best trait that he has is he's not afraid
to ask for something.
Kevin does all the marketing and the publicity.
When he gets in front of the camera, you know,
he's got a good smile, he likes it.
I think Kevin more than anybody, I mean,
whoever's gonna watch this is gonna hear,
"Oh yeah, I love Boblo. I miss Boblo."
But Kevin would have to be at the top of that list.
(playful music)
- I've been building this and collecting it since 1989.
It's not the exact layout of Boblo Island,
that's probably because I got
probably twice as many rides as Boblo Island.
So, I call it my future Boblo.
(playful music)
Yeah, I found a picture of me and my mom
on one of the boats.
I was about six months old wearing a Boblo cap.
And then when I turned 18, the first thing I did
was go down to the boat dock and apply for a job.
There's my uniform right there.
This is the uniform that we had to wear
while working on the boat.
I worked in the concession stand
right across from the bandstand area or the DJ booth.
We worked 18 hour days every other day.
We got there first thing in the morning.
We had to get the hotdogs going, the popcorn,
things like that, but it didn't feel like work.
Even now, when you go on that ship,
all your problems seem to go away, you know.
It's the riding of the boat,
the uniqueness of being on an island amusement park.
It's like you're a kid again.
So, that's why if I can't have the island,
I wanna make the island here.
(playful music)
This was an actual ride back in the late '60s, early '70s.
I mean, this thing looks cool at night.
Boblo called it The Bug, so that's what we call it, The Bug.
Get that dirt outta there.
You're not gonna get scared or sick on me, are you?
Ah!
(playful music)
- Genevieve, we have to figure out lunch tomorrow.
Careful, careful.
You know, like it's been such a long road for us.
Like, going back to when he told me he bought the boat.
You know, so he comes home he's like,
"Hey babe." I'm like, "Hey."
You know, whatever.
He's like, "Remember the Boblo Boats?"
I'm like, "Yeah, totally."
I'm like, "We had the best time on that.
Like all us cousins would go this and that."
He's like, "I just bought one."
I'm like, "What? Excuse me, great."
I'm thinking and then I saw a picture of it and I'm like,
"You bought what? You bought this?"
I'm like, "Are you crazy?"
I'm like, "Oh my gosh."
I'm like, "What are we gonna do?"
- Okay, nice deep breath in and out through your mouth.
Never as a child did I ever think about
or dream about owning the boat.
It's my own nostalgia that I have for the boat.
My kids, you know, I wanna pass this on to them.
- [Danielle] Ron works every single day.
He'll come home at seven,
totally hangs out with the kids and plays with them.
There they are, hiding as usual.
Yeah, we don't go out much anymore.
Have date night anymore, whatever, so to say.
- Where's Jonathan?
- [Danielle] Non-stop phone calls.
He gets phone calls all night long.
I don't think he's had a full night sleep in over a year.
(child meows)
- Is that a cat in the house?
(child meows)
- [Danielle] I mean, it's tiring, it's a lot.
Like, the average person could not handle
what he handles, 100%.
- [Girl] Do me, do me.
(girl laughing)
- There was definitely times
where the boat was more of a burden
than a good thing, you know.
It was financially stressful.
But he doesn't let obstacles get him down.
Even like, a few summers ago he had a brain tumor
and that just came out of nowhere
and totally just like a crazy experience for us.
I mean, he would sit there and write the alphabet
over and over and over to get his penmanship back
and his handwriting and you know, he's just very determined
and like, when he puts his mind to something, that's it.
He does it.
- Cancer survivors don't always talk about that,
don't always wanna talk about that.
You know, I too am a cancer survivor,
so, not everybody knows it, so, you know.
But there was a time when he wasn't too sure about things.
You know, Ron called me and you know, you know,
he told me he wasn't doing good.
He's got all kinds of tubes coming off him
and tons of IVs going into him and it's like, you know,
this ain't the same person I'm used to talking to.
And it was like 4:30 in the morning and he's like,
"You awake?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm awake, I'm at work."
He's like, "Yeah, I got bad news.
I think we're gonna have to scrap the boat."
He's like, "My health isn't the greatest
and you can't own this boat by yourself." I'm like, "True."
So he's like, "At this time I'm thinking
we're gonna scrap the project."
After about a week, he's like,
"No, we're not gonna scrap it."
He was like, "Did you cut anything off yet?"
"Nope, I didn't cut anything off, just measured."
He's like, "Yeah, that's fine. We're gonna keep the boat."
"Okay." And that was the end of that conversation.
- I'm a very hands on, I like to do everything on my own,
which it's good you're involved,
but a negative side to that is that you can get overwhelmed.
So, I've been giving Kevin more and more tasks
that he's very comfortable with doing
and that I'm comfortable with him doing.
He can literally devote all his time to this.
If we had a hundred people like Kevin,
this would've been done probably 10 years ago.
- [Kevin] After the work is completed on the Ste. Claire,
this is one of the places that we're thinking
of having her as a dockside attraction.
- [Ron] Utilizing the ship for public events,
weddings and proms and graduations and corporate parties.
You know, food, dining, Boblo gift shop, the museum itself.
- And we'd also like to, you know,
reach out to a lot of the senior homes in the area
and stuff like that and bring them on along down here.
You know, they could be on the second deck playing bingo,
listening to the oldies, Steve Miller,
maybe some polkas, things like that that they remember.
- We're at that point, you know,
we don't wanna give up on the boat,
just like people don't wanna give up on the city.
And it's small changes.
Clearly, if you're going, you know,
for those who haven't been in Detroit in a long time,
if you go down there now, I mean, there new buildings,
new stadium, you know, they're bring the railway system.
We know a lot's going down in the city.
I mean, same thing for us.
- It's a humongous job.
Well, I'll be the first to admit,
do I want this boat back like three weeks ago? Heck yeah.
But I know that's not a reality.
- Everybody wants to have a comment.
They don't take a look at the people individually and say,
"Well, what's really going on? Why did this happen?"
It's all about, well, the boat should have been done by now.
Okay, well great.
Let's see what you can do that I couldn't do
with all the obstacles I've had.
- But if anybody's gonna do it, we are.
- That's right. - Right.
- Hey, oh.
- Well, there goes that.
- It isn't because I'm heavy.
Whoa!
We met in 1988 at a nightclub called
Nectarine Ballroom in Ann Arbor.
We went dancing and then I got his phone number
and we started dating and just went on from there.
(Jeff whistles)
We're opposites but we're not.
You know, we love each other to a point
where we know our differences
and we know where we start, we end,
and I think we both have that fire for life.
And I think that's what brings us, keeps us together.
I never went to Boblo Island, only once or twice as a child,
but he brought me into that world.
And he got an invitation to go to a Boblo reunion
and he wasn't gonna go, and I said,
"You better go because you love Boblo Island,
you better be there."
He just was so upset when the boat closed
and reliving those memories.
But I'm glad we went to the reunion.
We had a lot of fun. Had a lot of fun.
Met the owner of the boat, Ron Kattoo,
and we started volunteering on the boat.
- I became a volunteer,
started working on the the boat
and Ron asked me if I'd be the volunteer coordinator.
I would email 'em, "Hey, we're gonna work at the boat
on this day from this time to this time,
and this is what we're gonna do."
I also became the general manager,
designing a lot of the souvenirs that we sold
at different events and shows and whatnot
to raise money to help the project out.
Seriously, when the island went under and stuff like that
I was devastated.
Like I said, that whole thing
it's just like losing a family member.
A lotta people think I'm crazy,
but I never wanna see that island again.
(foreboding string music)
From what I hear, where the amusement park was
they've let it go, the buildings are falling down,
they've been vandalized.
You know, the Space Needle is still there.
That's the only ride that's still there.
But I wanna remember it the way it was.
I don't wanna see it the way it looks now.
(birds tweet)
(distant organ music)
- [SS Columbia] This dock is where
my work as a ferry boat stopped and the island took over.
- That is huge.
That is absolutely huge.
In 1600, in the very early days, the French came over
and started trading with the native peoples.
The coureur des bois or the French woodsman,
they named Boblo based upon the white wood
of the basswood tree, Tilia Americana.
So sure enough, Boblo Island, bois blanc,
is probably just a mispronunciation of the French
because it is difficult for English-speaking people,
for that French pronunciation of bois blanc,
pronounced it Boblo.
But it's based on the basswood tree.
And it does not take long for nature
to actually take this back from a mowed and manicured state.
That is an amenity to those who now live
in this wonderful residential
development on the north end of the island.
(foreboding string music)
- I heard that they built mansions
over where Boblo used to be, and that's unfortunate.
I really wish we still had Boblo.
It gives Detroiters something to do
instead of just hanging out in the streets.
- Kids' first experiences going on a boat
was very likely the Columbia and the Ste. Claire
for people living in this area.
- Boblo, was in the inner city.
You know what I'm saying?
From the inner city kids like, oh, we going to Boblo.
You know, this a part of history.
(soft piano music)
- [SS Columbia] When Boblo Island closed down in 1993,
no one had any use for two old amusement park steamboats.
Claire and I fell into a deep slumber.
It seemed like even the Motor City itself was fast asleep.
Shops closed their doors, the streets were deserted,
the fires of the factory furnaces grew cold.
The river slowed even down to the fish.
And there we were, the oldest passenger steamboats
in America, slumbering away.
- You look at at something like that
sitting and moldering away,
and it's a little like seeing
Aunt Sadie in the hospital dying of cancer.
- I used to get the feeling from her
she was so lonely, she just hated sitting there.
- Detroiters as a whole feel really sad. I feel sad.
Anybody that I knew in the family and friends are sad
that we don't have this in our life anymore.
- [SS Columbia] There's not so many folks still around
who remember a different side to Boblo.
All these good times have a way of washing away
the things people just assume to forget.
- It has a place in civil rights history.
I did not know that.
I don't think your average person who attended Boblo Island
or rode on the boats ever knew that.
- [SS Columbia] But I was there,
and I'll never forget, Sarah.
- Sarah Elizabeth Ray was working
in a city ordinance department
and that department had a special program
where people could get extra training
and she was the only African American in the group.
So for their graduation,
they decided they were gonna ride the Boblo boat.
I assume everything had been segregated at some point,
so, I wasn't shocked that it was segregated.
What's a little shocking to me is how quickly
the Detroit community was willing to forget
and forgive the racist history of the Boblo company.
- You're making people uncomfortable Miss.
- Well, that's their problem.
- Now is when you're supposed to get off my boat.
(snaps fingers)
- That was a very deep cut both to her as a human being,
but also as a woman who had had accomplished
probably more than anybody in her family at that time.
It's hard to imagine the shame and embarrassment
that she must have undergone in that moment.
And there are people who kind of skulk away and don't fight.
But for her that was like, "Oh no,
I've come too far and they're not getting away with this."
She went straight to the NAACP
and reported what happened and they took the case.
One thing that people don't know
is that once the NAACP got involved,
Thurgood Marshall actually got on the case.
So, according to the Michigan Civil Rights Act,
you could not discriminate on the basis of race
in public accommodations, but Boblo kept appealing.
What the courts found is that it was a public accommodation
and they could not discriminate on the basis of race.
So, woo hoo! Sarah won.
(uplifting music) (amusement park rides)
And that was sort of the end of that fight in that moment.
But it had given Thurgood Marshall yet one more test
of what was the Supreme Court's appetite
for ruling that separate but equal in public accommodations
and public spaces would be unconstitutional?
And so his next trip to the Supreme Court
was Brown versus Board of Education.
So, for real, Sarah Elizabeth Ray did pave the way
for the change of law in the United States.
- [SS Columbia] Sarah spent the rest of her life
fighting for racial justice in her east side neighborhood.
In 2006, she passed away, 88 years old,
impoverished and alone.
15 years later, her home still stands
and inside the traces of Sarah's life remain,
scattered in debris and refuse across the floor.
(melancholy music)
- My main concern right now is getting these decks clear.
And like, see that...
So, this is Stephen Faraj, he's my brother-in-law,
he's my wife's brother.
Stephen will be taking over the day-to-day responsibilities
in terms of doing cleanup, maintenance.
He'll be taking care of the scheduling.
So, essentially I'll go down there to the ship,
make sure everything's going well.
(loud metal bang)
Really what I wanna do with those metal plates,
just make a a row, that way it's somewhat protected here.
And then this room should be empty when it's done. Okay?
- Right now we wanna preserve the boat.
If you look at the boat now, compared to eight years ago,
there's been some big steps backwards.
I'm here to stop that
and make sure that we're progressing forward.
My brother-in-law got this big project
and frankly, I don't think he really knew, you know,
what was going on here.
Slowly but surely, you know, we will get there.
- So, I have a folder all about Sugar Island.
I found what I think
is going to be very pertinent, it's Sugar Island,
the African American amusement park that never was.
(tinkling music)
In 1944, Black Detroiters bought Sugar Island
to develop a recreation site on 29 acres.
They bought a ferry boat, Sea Breeze,
and picked up passengers in Wyandotte.
(tinkling music)
They wouldn't be discriminated against
and it would be for their own people.
They were going to bring bands like Cab Calloway
and Duke Ellington down to play for entertainment.
But it didn't happen.
It was said they were thwarted in their efforts.
The power lines were cut and the boat sunk.
(music swells)
As far as the cause of the ship sinking,
that remains a mystery to this day.
Although there is consensus among downriver natives
that the Sea Breeze was intentionally sunk to thwart
the efforts of the Sugar Island Amusement Corporation,
there is no hard evidence supporting the story.
- [SS Columbia] Why does history have a tendency
to remember some things while conveniently omitting others?
- Hey
- On that corner right there,
there used to be a very vibrant barbershop.
- Across the street? - Across there where you
see all those trees.
- We had apartment buildings, apartment buildings
and what have you.
- There's nobody here anymore.
You know, my mother-in-law is one of the last
of the Mohicans around here.
You know, she is the monarch in this neighborhood.
- Even though the houses are boarded up and burned out,
this is where I live.
- Did you see this picture right here?
That's all the people standing in line
trying to get on the Boblo Boat.
I met my husband over on the Boblo Boat.
Now he's my husband, now he's my husband.
We need Detroit fixed first before you can go fix a boat.
I'm not against any, the Boblo Boat, don't get me wrong,
I would love to see that.
But before I see $10 million go into the Boblo Boat,
I would like to see $10 million put into our neighborhoods.
- [SS Columbia] Not everyone who left this city wanted to.
Some stayed as long as they could
until there was no other option.
Claire and I waited for decades hoping a prince would come
to save us with his kiss.
Praying our luck might finally change
and we could witness Detroit's resurgence.
(soft piano music) (boat engine running)
The kiss came, but not without a price.
I was bought by some folks out of New York.
They seemed determined to breathe new life into me
and in exchange they wanted me to meet a new river,
the Hudson.
In order to have a new life,
I was forced to leave all that I love behind
and sail into uncharted waters.
(soft piano music)
- You could not build this boat now.
You couldn't do it sort of skill-wise.
You couldn't do it from a regulatory standpoint.
People's comfort and the experience
was very much in the minds of the designers.
The way the chairs, I mean, the seats,
you picked the seats up and you moved them around, right?
You get on a modern boat, the seats are all lined up.
Like, who goes through the world like that by choice.
It matters that she's had all those people
treading upon her decks.
It matters that she's made all those trips.
That's why we're passionate.
We plan to take Columbia to New York City
and the Hudson River Valley.
Steam started there.
Steam essentially ended there with the Alexander Hamilton.
So, we wanna bring steam back to the valley.
Throughout her life she was evolving
and it's only appropriate that we then continue that path,
especially if she's the people's boat, like people change,
and she's gonna change along with 'em.
- [SS Columbia] My days in Detroit are numbered
but not over yet.
They still have to finish patching my hull.
Perhaps someday I'll be sailing again.
- In New York, people will be able to get on board
and experience long ago in the present.
So, she'll be like a floating time machine in a sense.
(soft piano music)
My dad took me on board when I was six years old
for the first time.
And the first place he took me was to the place
where you can look down and watch the engine.
The metal railing, the brass railing on the grand staircase,
if you hold that and you open your palms
and close your eyes and listen, you can hear people,
you can hear footsteps going up and down.
You can hear the babble of people.
First time I did that, somebody was there
that didn't understand what I was doing.
She said, "Are you all right?"
I said, "Yeah, just let me be, I'm listening."
"Listening to what?"
"I'm listening to history."
When I had the mastoidectomy, I nearly died.
I almost didn't come out of it.
If you felt the bone behind my ear,
you'd feel a depression where there was bone removed.
And after that, I couldn't figure out
what was happening to me
because I was picking up everybody's feelings.
I'd be feeling fine, walk down the street,
pass somebody who had a headache or a stomachache,
or they were angry, and I would experience that.
I don't know what it is,
but the Columbia, she does talk to me from time to time.
One time she said, "Restore my boilers, restore me."
- [SS Columbia] Restore my boilers, restore me.
Get my engine going.
Put me in New York and I'll show those youngsters
a thing or two.
(Gloria chuckles)
- She says these funny little things.
She told me after they scraped all those zebra mussels
off her hull, that her bottom was the cleanest
it had been in years. (Gloria chuckles)
But I've never had the Ste. Claire talk to me
and I'm not sure I would want that.
- [SS Columbia] Were her masts raised under a dark star?
Her hull forged with sinister iron?
If my sister isn't cursed, then why is she always
caught between the devil and the deep blue sea?
- I think it was in the '20s that the boat stopped
and picked up three bodies out of the river.
And they brought 'em and put 'em in a certain room
on the boat and for years and years and years and years,
everybody would tell you you'd see three light orbs,
shoom, shoom, in and out of that room.
We had that door nailed shut.
We won't let anybody go in that room. It was that creepy.
- A lot of people even would say they wouldn't ride on her.
They would wait for the Columbia
and not ride on the Ste. Claire.
(playful music)
With ships there's a lot of superstitions.
When the Edmund Fitzgerald was launched,
a huge wave crashed up against the dock
and a guy had a heart attack even and died.
When the Ste. Claire was launched, she listed, you know.
And thy all say these are bad omens.
Ships do have souls, they do have heart.
And they're like any kind of sisters,
they both have a different personality.
Columbia is a little more the stately older sister,
and Ste. Claire has always been more of the
party girl, younger sister.
I am a historian and when I see something historic,
I'd like to see it retain the history.
And unfortunately, that doesn't exist for the Ste. Claire
where it does for the Columbia.
They have taken off most of the historic parts of the ship.
The pilot house was not in good shape
and they immediately took that off.
So she kinda has lost her top, which is sad.
Maybe 'cause she's the younger sister it won't be so bad.
(Lori chuckles)
- There's only one man in my life,
and many people will tell you that,
that wanted this boat and coulda got it going
is John Belko.
To this day he's still the only man,
he would do it again in a heartbeat.
- I think that if John and Diane still had her,
she'd be up and running.
- Okay.
This shot here is one of my favorite shots.
It's very first day that I saw the Ste. Claire.
Everything was in disarray.
It just looked like she was like, forgotten
- When John told me he first wanted to do a haunted ship,
I said, "Okay, go find a boat."
Not thinking he would. (Diane chuckles)
- [Announcer] Two new bloody floors
with 35-foot slides to hell.
The nightmare is open.
- [Diane] Building the Nautical Nightmare
and bringing that to a reality was really a lotta fun.
The folks that we hired were very good.
- [Al] We would literally have
hundreds of people lined up prior to the opening each night.
- Scared someone so much on a drop portrait
that they vomited.
And I pulled 50 bucks outta my pocket,
I said, "Here, I want you to do it again."
- It was a ship that was essentially left for dead.
So, by making the ship even more dead,
we were able to raise funding to work on the restorations.
- We had an incredible first year.
- I think this was taken probably
two years into the project.
Now it looked like this.
The Ste. Claire ran through my veins every single day.
And I had the utmost interest in her success.
- [Diane] He became very emotionally attached to that boat.
(tense music)
As he moved forward to do much more restoration
than we ever agreed upon, and the bills started
coming back to Cleveland where I was living,
you know, I was looking at bankruptcy.
The decisions just weren't financially prudent
and hadn't been for quite some time.
Yeah, and we were estranged, make no mistake about it.
- I fell in love with that boat
and made a lot of things happen with it.
And on the other side of it is that I ended up losing a lot.
She got the boat, she got the boat in the divorce,
I got eliminated and knocked out of everything.
- So, my high point, and I say this partially in jest,
was when Ron said, "Yes, I'd like to buy the boat."
(Diane laughs)
(loud hiss from factory)
- Yeah, obviously we sit right next to Praxair,
it's an oxygen manufacturing plant.
So, I can't do any work here.
We've been looking for a place to move to
for almost eight months.
And it's hard to find a spot that's at least 16 feet deep,
200 feet long to put her.
The easy part, which is moving the boat somewhere,
that's become my hard part.
That's the problem.
Unfortunately, you know, the way we're going about this
I mean, it's just so hard because every spot that we find
falls under the Department of Natural Resources,
or it's industrial or it's Homeland Security.
Let's reach out to the media
and also focus on the Canadian side.
All right, I'll give you a call in a little bit, okay?
Here we go, News-Herald.
Let's see.
Hey Jim, sorry, this is Ron Kattoo again.
How are you?
The Ste. Claire, where we're sitting, she's right next to
the Praxair oxygen manufacturing plant.
Guess that entire canal shoreline,
they're gonna be redoing.
My biggest worry would be if we can't find a spot
and they wanna start that work on the shoreline,
I mean, I may have no option except to scrap her.
Thanks Jim, bye-bye.
Well, let's see what happens.
Hopefully we'll get some response
and find a place to put her.
(pensive string music)
- [Gloria] Boy that's busy.
I like that rollercoaster.
- You know, sometimes I think even though he's a doctor,
I think he got a little overwhelmed.
You have everybody and their grandmother telling you
and giving you advice and I don't think
he knew which way to turn.
- Well, that could be too,
but you also have to look at the fact that he's a surgeon.
He holds people's lives in his hands every day.
- Right? - And he may have,
you know, along the way inherited a God complex.
- I mean, in the beginning, you know, I had my doubts too
and still wonder.
You know, in all reality, he's had people say that,
you know, ask him if he wanted to sell the boat or whatever,
and he doesn't.
- I would like to live long enough
to come on board the Ste. Claire
and feel like I feel when I go on board the Columbia.
- Right, yeah.
- Like she's a happy ship.
- If everything goes well. - Yeah.
- That's why I'm hoping that, you know,
Ron does make me a partner because I already told him,
you know, basically I'll be living on that boat.
You know, I'll make sure everything...
I know what the people like, what they remember
and all that stuff.
And you know, I can get 'em going.
(magical music plays)
- The situation with the Ste. Claire is beginning to go
in a different direction.
The seven of cups would indicate
she will go in a different direction
and the barrier will be removed if the right choice is made.
I don't see scrapping, I see an intervention.
That's what I see.
- You know, looking in this room,
actually the majority of you have actually been on the boats
longer than I have.
This has not been an easy course.
I had such a hard time just trying to get people
to believe into the project and we got nowhere.
And you know, I have my wife here and my two kids,
you know, they have to suffer watching me all the time
just driving down to the boat, working on the boat.
You know, nobody wants to give up on the Boblo Boat.
We're not going to give up on the boat.
Jim was the one who actually got the word out for us.
After we got that word out, The Free Press picked it up,
the stations picked it up, and then now,
we went from having no place to go
to about 15 different offers that we got out there.
We're getting calls from mayors of cities,
(applause) (inspiration string music)
private landowners, corporations.
I mean, one guy made us an offer.
He has 800 feet of dock space.
He's gonna let us know on Tuesday.
But he said, "Listen, if everything goes well on Tuesday,
you guys can have that spot for $10 a month."
- This is basically where we're gonna be
parking the boat now.
This is the Rouge River.
That's Dick Street right behind us, the Dick Street Bridge.
And like I said, we got a 200-some-foot boat
and we got a little over 200 feet to work with right here.
But we got plenty of water.
- So, this move, finally getting here this day,
I mean, that's just another step in the whole big process.
You know, there's a thousand steps before she's done.
This is step number, I don't know, 800.
Yeah, we're getting there.
(rousing music)
(scraping metal cables)
(rousing music continues)
- [SS Columbia] My Claire, so filled with pride.
If only your story could end here.
You just take it one league at a time.
Just moving again feels like you should be
on the way to Boblo, doesn't it?
We're not there yet, old gal, but this is a sunny day
and we can pretend.
(inspiring orchestral music)
(playful music)
- Here we go, buddy.
You don't wanna scratch me, you don't wanna bite me.
You don't wanna do any of that.
You wanna keep your rabies to yourself.
Come on, buddy.
Come on, over here, come on.
Go on, go on.
There you go.
Raccoon number three.
No, all the public knows that we catch and release.
We don't catch and kill.
- Well, there's been a lotta changes
since we moved here to River Rouge.
Ski, Mike Lewinski, is no longer with project.
It was kind of a mutual thing, we both just parted ways.
And since then, Ron came to me in February
and offered me a partnership.
So, I am one of the partners now of the Ste. Claire.
We now have an awesome crew.
We got Rita, Samantha,
the welders, and Stephen here, Stephen is the best man.
He is running everything on this ship.
He's in charge of everybody.
And not only is he boss, but he takes the guys out
for field trips and everything else.
So, you know, everybody just loves him.
- Well, we did like Heidelberg project once.
We did Kevin's pool once.
We got the Renaissance Festival coming up.
You know, it's important that when you, you know,
work together that you play together too.
We decided this will be a great opportunity
for us to hear what the public has been saying
and that's that they wanna see some work on the outside.
In a minute here or two, we're gonna be
loading up this steel and getting all the scrap steel
that you see.
These are pieces of the Ste. Claire
that we've had to cut out that were too deteriorated
and we put in fresh metal and we're gonna send them off
to be recycled and turned into something else.
This boat has deteriorated
because steps like this weren't taken.
(electric spray painter)
(demolition noise)
- [SS Columbia] If Claire's steel and wood are replaced,
plank after rotten plank until not a single,
original beam remains, is she still my sister?
(soft tinkling music)
- When I got aboard, I thought she was probably
gonna say something smart like, "It's about time."
And she moved me to tears.
She said, "Welcome aboard, dear friend."
(soft tinkling music)
She's telling me I have to be around to get to New York
when she's on the river there.
And I'm telling her, unlike her, I keep getting older,
she's getting younger. (Gloria chuckles)
Yep.
I'm sad to see her go,
but happy that she'll have a new life.
- [SS Columbia] The time has come for me to leave.
It's the beginning of a new life for me.
- The old Taurus herself, the grand dame,
she is not about to give up as long as there's hope
for her to get back to work.
(soft relaxing music)
- [SS Columbia] It wasn't but a few months
from when I left Michigan
that I learned of Gloria's own departure.
Bon voyage, old friend.
From time to time I like to imagine
I can still hear her voice,
only she sounds different now. Closer.
(melancholy music)
(gulls squawk)
(drill buzzes)
- So, as it turns out, we do have to move the ship again.
We don't have a new location set as of right now
to share with you.
But we do know that we are going to have to move.
The reason we're getting kicked out
is 'cause there's a larger company out there
that wants the property.
They're willing to pay $100,000 a month, in that range,
which obviously, you know, we can't do that.
And we can't compete with that.
I mean, you know, hey, if somebody came and offered me
a hundred grand a month, I'd be like, "See you boat.
You know, you're really cool, but."
And I get that, you know, that just is what it is, you know.
So, we're gonna figure it out.
We're gonna truck on like we always have.
I mean, I know that's how I feel.
- I wanted to believe so bad that this boat was coming back.
How many people do you think back in 1910
that they had to build this ship?
It's gonna take a hell of a lot more,
I know he wants to save money.
I mean, who wouldn't?
But it's gonna take a hell of a lot more than three people
to rebuild this ship.
I mean, if you think about it, if they do this section,
get that part done and move on to the next,
by the time they're done with the next,
this section's gonna need rebuilding again, you know.
I mean, he is the kinda person that he can make you believe
the sky is purple.
- Boblo Island here we come. - Yeah, right.
- Just teasing. - That's one place, no.
You'd have to pull over and let me out. (Jeff laughing)
(boat engine revs)
See, this is the same route we took.
Brings back memories.
We are at Sugar Island.
We think that might have been the dock right there.
- [Jeff] Is that this side of the island?
- Yeah, that's Boblo, that's the Space Needle.
(boat engine revs)
- You okay?
- Well, it's just sad memories,
you know, I mean, I remember what the island was
and seeing all the rides laying all over the ground,
I just, you know, I don't wanna see that.
Those houses should not have been put on that island.
It should have remained for the public.
- What's the difference? - I don't wanna see it now.
- Oh. - You know what?
Never mind, in a minute, you're going in that river.
Then you're gonna get something really good to watch.
- If the Boblo Park reopened, would you go see the park?
- Oh yeah, if it reopened.
- Okay, so that's not off the table.
(soft tinkling music)
- [SS Columbia] I've been dragging my rudders up to now.
But you must hear the story about the end of Boblo Island.
- So many of these trolley parks,
these older amusement parks by say, 1974, 1975,
the majority of them had already closed.
There's theme parks.
Those theme parks work on an economic model
that's much more effective and profitable.
You are cutting off city dwellers,
who don't have access to private cars,
so, you're ensuring a kind of population in those parks
that has some money to spend.
They're also kind of created without the kinds of spaces
that cause tension.
So, Walt Disney had no swimming pools, no bathing beaches,
no roller skating rinks, and no ballrooms
in any of his theme parks.
These were places where blacks and whites
would come into conflict.
So, the older, more traditional amusement park
already had a lot of strikes against it
with this history of segregation and desegregation,
but now they had this competition.
What many of these park owners began to realize
is that this land was actually quite valuable.
It was near the city, and often park owners
could sell the land to developers at quite a big profit.
So, city after city after city
lost their urban amusement parks.
(melancholy music) (structure crashing)
All the people in those cities
lost access to this relatively inexpensive,
incredibly pleasurable form of recreation.
- [SS Columbia] That does sound like
what happened to our Boblo.
Some claim gangs cruising the park scared away the patrons,
others blamed Claire and me,
saying we were just a luxury too costly to maintain.
(pensive piano music)
But Claire and I know the real story.
- When we closed the deal for Boblo,
we only had 45 days to get it open.
They had not intended to operate that year.
They'd mothballed it.
This park, Wild Waves, where we're at today
is a piece a cake compared to operating on an island.
Everything you did had to be brought in by barge or by ship.
And to do that in 45 days can't be done.
I don't know how we did it.
Like, today I'd say no.
But we were too stupid to know better so we did it.
(water slide splashes)
In the business community, yes, everybody knew
who the Benaroyas were because of Benaroya Symphony Hall
and a lot of philanthropic work that they did.
They agreed to make the investment,
but wanted to also be a partner.
You know, at that time I didn't have any problems with that.
There's money and then there's money.
(pensive string music) (amusement park ambience)
I always wore just a pirate shirt and pair of shorts
and nobody knew who I was.
And I'd start asking 'em questions about like,
"Hey, the park's looking good."
And they'd give you a whole, "We heard it got cleaned up
and boy it sure is.
It looks the best we've seen it."
And once you start hearing that every day
and the word got out, the crowds started getting bigger.
And by about August, Boblo has finally turned the corner
and the locals that hadn't come
were all of a sudden coming back.
I think they were used to when the Benaroyas said, "Jump,"
you were just supposed to say, "How high?" And I didn't.
Larry was a good business guy, but he's never run a park.
He wasn't a hands-on, he'd never been a builder.
He and I just started not getting along.
(tense string music)
The Benaroyas tried to stop me
from having the extended season because they wanted me out.
It takes time to bring in new investors,
but I had a pool of investors that I had lined up
and I was actually supposed to meet with them
the morning that I got hurt.
September 24th, '93, I think.
I was in the car crash that basically almost,
should have killed me.
They didn't think I'd survive.
(melancholy music)
When I woke up from the coma, I was ready to move forward.
And then I found out a lot of the stuff
that had happened to the park
and that Benaroyas had taken control of it
and put it into bankruptcy and that they'd laid off,
I think everybody at that point.
They'd fired everybody and shut the park down.
They'd sold off all the rides, all the equipment.
The only thing that was left was the land.
And they sold it to a gentleman that,
he got a steal on the land
because if the Benaroyas sold it for more than that
they'd have to give my family a share of the profits.
It's unfortunate, just one accident and one bad partner
and Boblo paid the price.
(soft tinkling music)
- You know, my hope and prayer is that one day
we find a spot, whether it's the city that gives it to us
or a person, but just a long-term relationship.
Somewhere we can put the boat
and have what we need to complete the project.
Push comes to shove, we've got no options,
and they want us out and we got nowhere to go.
I mean, this is like the equivalent of like,
towing someone a mile on the road.
You know what I mean?
It's like right up from where we're at right now.
- So, where, have you made a decision
where you're gonna park it at?
- No, we're still looking.
We're still kinda figuring things out.
- Good morning.
Want some coffee?
What's the matter?
Come on.
Wee! (bird squawks)
Wee!
(video game music)
Off to sell Spectrum cable and talk about the Boblo Boat.
Even though every time I bring it up, Kevin wants to hit me.
Right, Kevin?
Anyway, we still have the passion for the boat,
we just lost our trust with, unfortunately with Ron,
I really liked him in the beginning.
Just, I saw the writing on the wall.
- It's a lot of broken promises and everything else
that enough is enough, you know.
Ron has been like a brother to me this whole time.
You know, not just a best friend, he's part of the family.
It's been eight years of nothing but
a total rollercoaster ride, you know,
and I'm starting to think that maybe it's time to get off.
- I just need to get 200 feet of space
that's all I'm looking for.
I know that sounds crazy. It's almost like saying, well,
you know, it's almost like begging,
but without that 200 feet of space, we can't go on.
(soft piano music)
- Today, we gather here to bless the Ste. Claire
more than 100 years after she first sailed
the Great Lakes.
I'm gonna ask that you all close your eyes
and envision first a new home for her,
someplace welcoming and safe.
I ask you to envision her not too many years from now,
her white paint bright in the sunshine,
her flags blowing in the breeze
and her decks filled with people
enjoying an afternoon on the water.
Maybe you can even hear the seagulls crying
as they dive to catch pieces of popcorn
that children toss to them from the side of the boat.
This can be the Ste. Claire's future
and tonight we will it to be so.
A blessing on the Ste. Claire and a blessing on you all.
- I don't know what more we could do.
I mean, we've been in the papers, we've been in, you know,
every media outlet there is.
So, it just needs somebody to step up.
- How can people get in touch with you?
If somebody's watching this
and they've actually got some kind of dock space,
what do they do?
- They can go to our website...
I mean, we're down to the wire,
but we're getting calls every day
from the people that own that property,
you know, and they were generous enough to donate it to us.
So, we really have to honor their wishes
in getting out of there in time.
- [SS Columbia] At the 11th hour, a marina stepped forward
and offered us space for Claire.
(hopeful string music)
For the first time in decades,
she sailed back to her home in Detroit.
And with a view of the city skyline behind her,
her crew got back to work.
If this was your classic bedtime story,
we'd be heading toward a happy ending.
A wizard or even a fairy godmother might arrive
from some far away land.
She would step on Claire's decks, wave her magic wand
and poof, the curse would be lifted.
But this isn't that kind of fairy tale.
(explosion)
(flames crackle)
(soft orchestral music)
(seagulls squawking)
- [Ron] All the work we had put into her just gone.
I didn't know what to do.
I was emotionally just wrecked.
- [Kevin] I kinda feel the boat relied on me
and I couldn't save her.
- All right?
It's just the saddest thing,
knowing that a boat that we love so much
and worked on for so many years is no longer here.
You know, it's there, but I'm just-
- It was dead a long time ago.
You could feel the spirit when you walked on the boat.
The last few times there was none.
It was like she already gave up, she was dead,
or she knew she was dying or whatever.
It just did not have that feeling anymore.
- I think it started when the Columbia left too.
- Right around that time.
The one thing I do want is I want them to find out
what caused it.
And if it was arson, I want that person to pay
because this boat was all we had left.
- Of course, the arson inspectors came in and, you know,
like, you know, just detailed grilling us
about what happened.
I'm like, "I don't know what happened, I wasn't there."
I mean there's the guy, he's telling you what happened.
He was welding, you know, the fire started
and it got outta control.
People don't understand, the wood was not insured, okay?
Because I couldn't get insurance for wood that old.
The hull was, and the engine, that was all insured.
But there was no damage to the hull.
What I lost was all the wood.
I mean, there are a lot of people, you know, who,
they may have not said it to my face,
but I'm, you know, I'm not stupid.
I know the people who gave up and that's fine.
- I'm just thinking maybe, I'm just hope, I'm an optimist,
and I'm thinking maybe we can rebuild the boat.
Not this boat, but build a new boat.
- He's a dreamer.
- 1902, they were able to build a boat.
- It's a great idea. I think it's, you know what?
At this point in my life, I'm 55,
I need to start enjoying life
and I think it's time to move on.
I want it to be done.
The rollercoaster has finally come into the station.
(melancholy music)
(amusement park rides)
- [SS Columbia] Intoxicated with nostalgia,
even our memory tends to forget.
* Back in the day we used to go and catch a boat to Boblo *
* And steam the river...
- [SS Columbia] This past belongs to us all,
buried and yet still breathing.
- [Reporter] The city filing for bankruptcy.
* And you could ride up high or low on the way to Boblo *
* Hot dogs and funnel cakes better on that Boblo *
* Giddy feelings when you hear that ferry horn blow *
* It was a fantasy on the other side of history * (crowd yelling)
* The land of milk and honey
* Flowing with the mystery
* Ferris wheels and popcorn meals would give every kid * (crowd yelling)
* a big smile
- [SS Columbia] We must remember it all,
even though it hurts.
Claire, how about a race for old-times sake?
(melancholy music)
(crowd cheering)
(melancholy music continues)
(slow piano music)
Humankind preserves and restores history
in an attempt to freeze time.
(electronic whirring)
They hope against the laws of nature
that if my decks gleam like they did
when they were children, that their past is still alive.
I am a vessel made from the memories
of everyone who boarded the Boblo Boats.
(bitter-sweet music) (birds chirping)
It's hard to go on after what happened to Claire.
(melancholy music)
- Not a day goes by that I don't think about what we lost,
the foyer and the staircase and all that beautiful brass
that was on there.
But you know, what can I do?
You know, it is what it is, I can't go back in time.
All I can do is push forward and just, you know,
do the best I can do.
Yeah, I mean, I beat stage four bladder cancer.
I beat a brain tumor.
You know, I had my left kidney taken out,
chemotherapy for six months, you know, I mean, you know,
what's fixing a boat compared to all that? Nothing.
(playing guitar)
I have my wife, I got my two kids,
I have the people who still support me in the project.
That's it, that's all I need.
- Well, after the boat burned on July 6th,
Wendy Sutton kept writing to me on our Facebook group
'cause she was asking who had the bear costume
and I told her I had one of 'em,
but I wasn't willing to come to the island and all that.
That's when she started telling me
about their plans for the future and you know,
bringing people back over and starting events on there
and stuff like that.
So who knows, this could be a new chapter.
It might not look the same, but who knows,
it could be even better.
- Oh, shit, there it is.
(Kevin groans)
- Huh, you doing okay?
Kevin? It's fine.
(Kevin groans)
- [Jeff] You'll be fine.
- Why am I here? - Gimme the bag.
Gimme that. I got it.
Whose that, Wendy? - Hey, Wendy,
we just got into the parking lot.
Okay, where do you want us to go from here?
- Hi.
- Hello, nice to meet you. - Hi, how you doing?
- It was an interesting ride over.
- Yes. - I wanted to give you
all of this. This is the souvenirs I developed
and then had made and stuff like that.
Here's all the interviews that we did.
Here's a DVD for you. - Wow, okay.
- There. - Thank you.
- You're welcome. - Oh, nice.
- What you said helped me out a great deal.
That you know, you want people here.
- Yes. - We do.
- This is a public park.
We wanna bring it back and bring people back here.
- And you know what? - And so many people want it.
- A really great idea for an event next year
to bring Carter Shows here.
- You know what? If you were to put
a carnival on this island
and do a commercial, come relive Boblo.
Oh my God. - Wouldn't that be-
- You would have to turn people away.
(distant music) [Kevin] And if you remember, this was a commercial
about Boblo. How many of you remember that?
Come on, everybody clap. Here he comes, yay!
It's a new era so this is the son of the Boblo Bear.
* Come on let's twist again like we did last year *
(upbeat music) (people clap)
(romantic music)
- [SS Columbia] There is an anchor within each of us
buried deep waiting to be lifted.
- [Jeff] Are you glad you came or are you still upset?
- [Kevin] I don't know yet, we'll see.
- [Ron] Events like the fire change people.
I mean, that was the death of Boblo for him.
The fact that we're not working on the boat anymore,
you know, I don't hold anything against him.
There was a lot of good, you know,
so all I can do is say thank you to him.
(relaxing clarinet music)
I've got a place.
(generator running) I've got time.
It'll be done faster if I had $3 million right now.
(crane beeping)
The real question is, do I really think I can get this done?
Unequivocally, yes.
(dramatic music)
The only thing I ask for is patience.
Look how long it's taken for the city of Detroit to rebound
after a fire, and a riot, and this and that,
and you know, bad politicians or whatever.
I mean, do we all just pick up and leave
and say the hell with it?
- I've been saying for the last 28 years
that we're on the front lines of the greatest urban
comeback story in this nation's history.
We're seeing people move back in
for the first time in a long time.
- No, I think that Detroit is having a resurgence.
It's having a resurgence in parts
and I think that there are other parts
that are really struggling.
- Resurgence suggests that it's returning
to something that it was.
(torch ignites)
Detroit is finding a new identity
that is important to where we are right now, right here.
- There's a lot of money in this town certainly,
and people are coming from all over
to experience the city and its comeback.
Who knows? Maybe somehow, hopefully it can get restored.
- It ain't all about the money sometime,
it's about people getting together
and you know, making it happen.
- The Detroit Lions may never win a Super Bowl,
never been in one, but I think one of the two Boblo Boats
is coming back really soon.
- You know, it's funny, the slogan of Detroit
is Rise from the Ashes.
(music swells)
(soft tinkling music)
- [SS Columbia] If we gather enough courage
to raise our masts and weigh anchor with all our might
one day our ships will sail.
(playful music)
(playful music continues)
- Going on a boat dancing all night long
with my sister and cousins,
with their coolers full of like, all our Arabic food
and this and that and like, it's like a whole day event.
- You had $7, $8, you went to Boblo.
You know, your mom knew where you was at.
You was at Boblo and what kind of trouble
could you get in at Boblo?
You gonna not eat your hot dog
or your elephant ear or something like that.
- My family's family reunions,
we'd all get on the Boblo boat, 20, 30 of us.
- There was a flock of seagulls that followed the boat
as it went up and down the river.
But you could make bread balls
and you could literally throw them in the air
like a hard ball, throw 'em that way,
and they would catch them and you'd see it
knock 'em backwards, you know?
Or they'd fight in mid-air for them.
- So you knew everybody who worked at Boblo.
- Yeah, you could see them when they went back to school,
you could tell everybody that worked at Boblo.
They had a Boblo tan.
- It had great music, lemonade, Coca-Colas, Faygo.
I'm sorry, forget I said Coca-Cola, it was all about Faygo.
- You would smell the oil from the engine room.
You could feel the heat.
You felt like you were going on some faraway adventure,
maybe on the ocean or something.
- The boat ride back was always magical.
- Instead of, "Oh, we have to go home now,"
it was like, "Now we get to get back on the boat."
- It was just amazing seeing them come down the river.
They never made a noise.
They're quiet except for the DJ on there.
And you can hear the thump of the music.
I thought that they were driven by funk, if you ask me.
- My wife and I took our kids one of the last times
that Boblo Island was open.
We rode every single ride probably four or five times.
And I remember my daughter and I got sick
on one of the rides 'cause we rode it so much.
- Hi, I am Kevin Mayer from Livonia, Michigan.
I know this is somewhat unconventional,
but I wanted to submit a video along with my resume
to help you understand just how much
working at one of the Disney theme parks means to me
and what I can bring to the table.
(lighthearted music) Watch your step.
Keep hands and arms inside the car at all time
and enjoy your ride.
- Thank you very much.
- I like making people happy.
Of course, you have to make sure
that all the rules are followed and you know,
things like that, safety precautions.
But you have to do it in a fun way.
You know, I would have people laughing
and having fun even in line.
I know you might be thinking to yourself
that I'm overqualified to be a ride attendant.
I wouldn't mind doing something in the office.
If it's at all possible one or two days a week
that I can actually get out there in the park,
be with the people, be by the rides,
you know, that's what means a lot to me.
Except for the Hall of Presidents.
(Kevin chuckles)
You can cut that out, but I had-