Two icebreakers carry the name Mackinaw, one tied up in Mackinaw City and the other in Cheboygan. This month they are heading in opposite directions. The retired one in Mackinaw City started shorter fall hours on October 11. The active one in Cheboygan is starting the part of the year the Coast Guard calls its busiest. On the evening of October 30, the working ship opens its decks to the public for free.
The two ships share a name and a 20th anniversary, but they run on different calendars, and October is the month when the gap is easiest to see.
Same name, same day in 2006
The two ships changed places on a single day. The Coast Guard's history of the original cutter says the old Mackinaw, WAGB-83, was decommissioned on June 10, 2006. Its replacement, WLBB-30, was commissioned that same day. That makes 2026 a 20th year for both of them, and the museum ship marked the milestone with a summer of events while the cutter kept its regular Coast Guard schedule.
The original Mackinaw's history points straight at Cheboygan. Congress authorized it on December 17, 1941, ten days after Pearl Harbor. It was built in Toledo for ten million dollars and commissioned on December 30, 1944. According to the museum's own history, "Cheboygan remained her home port her entire life." After 62 years of service, the ship didn't go back to its home port when it retired. It went to the old railroad dock in Mackinaw City, and it is still there today as the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum.
So Cheboygan kept the active mission and Mackinaw City got the museum ship.
| Mackinaw WAGB-83 | Mackinaw WLBB-30 | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it sits | Old railroad dock, Mackinaw City, behind The Hook Lakeside Grill | 632 Coast Guard Drive, Cheboygan |
| Status | Decommissioned June 10, 2006; now a museum | Commissioned June 10, 2006; active Coast Guard cutter |
| October 2026 | Fall hours from October 11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Fall is buoy-retrieval season |
| Next public moment | "Boo Onboard the Mackinaw!" on the museum calendar through October 31 | Free Haunted Ship, October 30, 5 to 9 p.m. |
Mackinaw City's ship is slowing down after a big summer
The museum built its summer around the anniversary. 9&10 News reported in late May that the museum would mark the anniversary with a two-week celebration from June 20 through July 4. The schedule included free public tours on June 20, an 11 a.m. ceremony, a hot dog lunch at noon, and a ticketed fundraiser that ended with fireworks at dusk. The daily themes included Icebreaking Day, Meet the Mackinaw Crew, and The Women Who Built the Mackinaw Day, plus book signings. In that same 9&10 News story, executive director Sarah Overmeyer said, "We have been busy over the past year planning a two-week celebration that will have activities for all ages, each day will feature a special event."
Fall hours run much shorter. In summer, the museum's hours page listed daily openings at 10 a.m., with last admission at 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Starting October 11, the ship is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the last visitors board at 3 p.m. On a Saturday, that means the last chance to board comes four hours earlier than it did in summer.
The museum's October calendar lists "Boo Onboard the Mackinaw!" running from October 1 through October 31. The museum hasn't posted a closing date for the season. Anyone planning a late-fall visit should check the hours page before driving to the dock.
Cheboygan's ship is just getting started
The museum is entering its quiet season, and the cutter on Coast Guard Drive is entering its busiest one. On its unit page, the Coast Guard describes a year that runs on the opposite schedule from most of the Straits:
- Fall: retrieving aids to navigation, meaning the buoys that mark the channels during shipping season
- Winter: heavy icebreaking to keep channels and harbors open
- Spring: putting those aids to navigation back in place
- Summer: "usually the slowest time with the occasional patrol"
The same page says the Coast Guard is required by law to keep a heavy icebreaking capability on the Great Lakes to meet the winter shipping needs of industry. Beyond icebreaking, WLBB-30 handles buoy work and search and rescue, and it can deploy an oil-skimming system for spill response. Its deployments run from one day to about three weeks.
Mackinaw City's ship had its biggest days in summer. Summer was the slowest part of the year for Cheboygan's ship, and it is now moving into the fall, winter, and spring months the Coast Guard lists as its busiest.
October 30 on Coast Guard Drive
That timing is what makes the Haunted Ship a good night out. Cheboygan Main Street DDA lists the event aboard USCG Cutter Mackinaw WLBB-30, the active cutter at 632 Coast Guard Drive. The details from the event listing:
- When: Friday, October 30, 5 to 9 p.m.
- Cost: free
- Kid-friendly tours: 5 to 6:30 p.m.
- Full haunted ship: 7 to 9 p.m.
- Bring: a non-perishable food item, suggested as a donation to local food banks
- Park: on Coast Guard Drive
- Note: the cutter is on a Coast Guard base, and weapons aren't allowed
The ship opens right after downtown trick-or-treating ends. Cheboygan Main Street's calendar has trick-or-treating that same afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. at Main Street and Festival Square, with free hot dogs and popcorn. The DDA's "Stroll Into Fall" displays from businesses, families, and organizations stay up downtown through October 31. Families can walk from the costume line downtown to the 5 p.m. kids' tours without a gap in the evening.
The visit comes at a specific point in the cutter's year. By the end of October, fall buoy retrieval is underway, and winter icebreaking is next.
What the coming winter looked like last year
Last winter shows what comes after the Haunted Ship. UpNorthLive reported that Coast Guard Sector Northern Great Lakes started Operation Taconite at 1 p.m. on December 10, 2025, to keep new ice from disrupting commercial traffic. The outlet called it the Coast Guard's largest domestic icebreaking effort. According to the Coast Guard, Taconite supports taconite shipments from the Head of the Lakes to steel mills. Its companion, Operation Coal Shovel, covers shipping from southern Lake Huron through the St. Clair and Detroit rivers into Lakes Erie and Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway.
From there, the Cheboygan cutter's winter worked its way around the region:
- January 21, 2026: 9&10 News reported that Mackinaw freed and escorted the 678-foot Wilfred Sykes on Lake Huron. In the same operations, the cutter Neah Bay assisted the 1,004-foot American Spirit on Lake Erie.
- January 28, 2026: a Coast Guard photo record on DVIDS shows Mackinaw doing track maintenance in the Straits of Mackinac in support of Taconite and regional commerce and safety.
- February 5, 2026: a Coast Guard release describes the crew working with Air Station Traverse City on the St. Marys River, clearing ice for Taconite.
The same release says Taconite was the last domestic icebreaking operation still running in the 2025–26 season. It ended once Western Great Lakes ice had nearly melted and commercial shipping no longer needed icebreakers. The Coast Guard hasn't announced a start date for the 2026–27 season. Last winter's operations began on December 10.
For the original Mackinaw, that kind of winter is now history, told aboard a ship the museum describes as a chance to walk in the footsteps of the crews who kept the Great Lakes open in the depths of winter. For WLBB-30, it is the next few months of work. Kids who walk through the cutter's haunted passageways on October 30 will be touring the ship that may be breaking track in the Straits by December.
The crew at Coldwell Banker Fairbairn Realty has spent generations along these same waters, from the Inland Waterway out to the Straits. If you own on the Lake Huron shoreline between Mackinaw City and Cheboygan and you're curious what your stretch of the lake is worth as the season turns, get a free home valuation from us.
