The unofficial kick-off to summer is nearly here in Manitowoc, as the S.S. Badger is set to dock for the first time this year on Friday.
This year will be extra special, as a documentary featuring the iconic vessel is set to be shown to celebrate her arrival.
This feature-length film is the brainchild of Drayton Blackgrove, a South Central Michigan native.
Blackgrove is a self-proclaimed train fanatic and has used that passion to launch a YouTube channel called Delay in Block Productions with nearly 250,000 subscribers.
But how does this relate to the S.S. Badger?
The father of a friend of Drayton told him about the Badger and how she would transport trains across Lake Michigan, so Drayton knew he had to check it out.
“In 2016, my parents took us on a vacation,” he recalled. “I got to see the Badger for the first time in person, and it was really cool. I took some pictures of it, and I thought to myself, ‘One day I’m going to ride this thing.’”
The most immediate connection he found with the Badger is the smell of the coal burning.
“(As) somebody that spends a lot of time around historic steam locomotives, it was really cool to have that same smell come from a steamship, and it’s the only one left,” he said with a chuckle.
Over the next six years, despite a move to Tennessee, he kept thinking about the Badger and how much he wanted to take a ride.
Then, in 2022, the Badger owners announced they were planning on converting from coal-fired to an alternate fuel source, so Drayton decided it was time.
“Being the history nerd that I am, I wanted to document how the badger works before it gets converted,” he explained. “I wanted to go down there with HD cameras and lights and microphones and really do it justice.”
So, in 2023, Drayton packed up his equipment and made his way to Ludington, Michigan, to board the ship and begin creating his documentary.
However, that was the year the sailing season was cut short due to damage at the Ludington dock, so he had to go back in 2024 and 2025 to get everything he needed.
What started as a simple behind-the-scenes video on the inner workings of the nearly 74-year-old vessel had morphed into a look back at the entire history of the ship and giving it the credit Drayton says she is owed.
“The Badger is actually the largest car ferry ever built,” he noted. “The Titanic gets a lot of fame because it was the largest ocean liner ever built at that time, and the same thing with the Fitzgerald, but the Badger doesn’t get a lot of credit. I think it’s a ship that really more people need to know more about.”
The film, entitled “Railroad on Water: The Legend of the SS Badger,” has been finished since October, but Lake Michigan Carferry asked Drayton to hold off to use it as a “welcome back” for the 2026 season.
Drayton will be on hand in Manitowoc for a showing of the film at the UW–Green Bay Manitowoc Campus Theater on Sunday (May 17th) at 3:00 p.m.
Tickets are available at TicketSource.com
