The largest maritime museum on the Great Lakes isn’t the museum in Toledo, it’s in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Valley Camp is a 550-foot long Great Lakes freighter. Although modern ships of the Great Lakes are twice as long, this was one of the largest of its time when it was built in 1917.
There are only about a hundred-odd artifacts in the ship (including the ship itself), but the way the vessels history is interpreted in the context of the Great Lakes’ development and US history is stellar. If you only have time for one museum on this side of Sault Ste. Marie, visit this ship.
To be honest, I enjoyed walking through the ship to admire its mechanical parts and crew quarters more than the historical exhibits. The ship itself is a remnant of History, the 1/4 inch steel floorboards warped from carrying thousands of tons of grain and gravel for decades still remain.
