"Resort season" is again under way.

Summer visitors have been flocking to Leelanau County longer than many people realize. It is not an uncommon perception that the tourist industry replaced the lumber industry in the county, but that is not quite the case. The tourist industry was already under way before the fabled lumbering era had run its course, and there was actually quite an overlap of the two.

Much of the timber harvested was marketed, in various forms, in big cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee where residents, who could afford it, sought summer respites from the hot, teeming city in quiet retreats in northern Michigan and northern Wisconsin.

These 19th century vacationers were fewer in number than today, and not merely because the population of the Great Lakes states was also less then than today.

The average family simply could not afford a vacation like most families now enjoy, although there were things many could afford, such as a day’s excursion on a steamer on Lake Michigan.

On the other hand, there were thousands of well-to-do families in the cities who could afford summer “resorting” and it wasn’t simply for a week or two, but, often typically, for virtually the entire summer.

For most of the family, at least.

“Resort Specials” were operated by the railroads seasonally, and, if they didn’t quite make it all the way to Leelanau, they did stop at Traverse City, which, by 1892, had three railroads.

Finally, by 1903, Leelanau was more fully connected with the rail network, as a contemporary handbill issued by the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway for “Train Service, Season 1903,” attests.

“The Northland Limited,” the handbill read, “formerly known as the Northland Express, will be strictly a limited train and will run on about its former schedule, leaving Cincinnati, Pennsylvania Station, at 7:00 P.M. daily, with through sleeping cars to Petoskey and Mackinaw City, and also to Traverse City and Northport, arriving at those points the next forenoon.”

It was also announced that “the new road from Traverse City to Northport will be opened for traffic about July 1st, when through sleepers will be run from Cincinnati to Northport, thus accommodating passengers desiring to visit Northport, Omena and other Grand Traverse Bay resorts. Connections will also be made at Traverse City with the Traverse Bay Line Steamers as formerly.”

The steamers alluded to were the Columbia, Crescent and the Lou A. Cummings, and they were as familiar to some Leelanau residents as they were to those of Traverse City.

The completion of the new rail line, however, with its faster service, resulted in the little wooden steamers (only the Columbia exceeded 100 feet in length) being forced off their old routes.

Area businessmen were concerned about the loss of “local” boats for service on West Grand Traverse Bay and, accordingly, formed the Traverse Bay Transportation Company. The owning group included Anthony Greilick and his son, Frank; R. Floyd Clinch; and several others.

An almost new steamer (built in 1903) about the size of the Columbia was purchased for $28,000 from the Northern Transportation Company.

Her original name, Chequamegon, was retained and “she was greeted upon her arrival at Traverse City on June 12, 1907, by the blowing of all the factory whistles in town,” Leelanau historian Larry Wakefield wrote.

The steamer called, as her predecessors had done, at Omena and Northport, where, according to Wakefield, her only serious mishap occurred.

“Her cook, Bert Silver, lost his balance and fell overboard while heaving a bucket of slops into the water, and drowned.” Wakefield reported.

The little steamer had originally operated between Milwaukee and nearby Whitefish Bay, where the Pabst brewing family had a resort, and, appropriately enough, she was under command of one of the famous family members – Capt. Frederick Pabst.

Today, after 100 years, the Chequamegon is but a dim memory and the rail service, too, is long gone.