This Great Lakes Boat Blog is presented by Filer Credit Union, with offices in Manistee, Ludington and Bear Lake, 800-595-6630, www.filercu.com
Photos by Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
MANISTEE, Mich. — The MV Calumet made a delivery of salt to the Reith-Riley Construction dock on Manistee Lake Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. The road salt came from the Ojibway Mine in Windsor, Ontario. The ship arrived early in the morning and left dock about 4:20 p.m.
The Ojibway Mine was established in 1955 and is owned by the Canadian Salt Company, Ltd. It is one of two facilities operated as the Windsor Salt Mine. The other is the Windsor Facility of the Canadian Salt Company. The Ojibway mine has 250 employees and producing road and mining salt. The other facility has 110 employees.
The MV Calumet was built by American Shipbuilding Co. in Lorain, Ohio in 1973 for the Union Commerce Bank, Ohio, managed by Kinsman Marine Transit. It was originally christened as the William R. Roesch. It sailed for Pringle Transit Company, a subsidiary of Oglebay-Norton Marine, from 1976 to 1994. In 1994, it was transferred to Oglebay-Norton, which, in 1995, renamed it David Z. Norton, in honor of the company’s founder. In 2006, Oglebay-Norton’s fleet of River Class ships were sold to Grand River Navigation and the Wisconsin and Michigan Steamship Co., which was owned by Sand Products Corp. of Muskegon.
Its name was then changed to David Z. In 2008, it was sold to Rand Logistics, Inc. of Jersey City, NJ and renamed Calumet after the original Calumet that was built in 1929 for US Steel and scrapped in 2007. The ship is now operated by Grand River Navigation Co. of Traverse City, a division of Rand Logistics.
The Calumet is one of three triplet ships, the others are the Manitowoc and the Robert S. Pierson. Those ships were originally known as the Earl W. Oglebay and the Wolverine, respectively. While the Manitowoc and the Calumet are operated by Grand River Navigation, the Robert S. Pierson is operated by its Canadian partner, Lower Lakes Towing of Port Dover, Ontario.
The Calumet is 630 feet long, 68 feet wide and has a depth of 36-feet, 11-inches. It is propelled by two Alco V16 diesel engines and can run up to 14 knots (16 mph).
Its sister ship is the Manitowoc, which makes frequent visits to Manistee.
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