Guardian of the Great Lakes

by Bradley A. Rodgers

Guardian of the Great Lakes is the saga of the USS Michigan, an archetypal iron-hulled war steamer launched in 1843. Its mission was to patrol the often volatile Great Lakes region, quelling port town civil disturbances, while at the same time rescuing both Canadian and American ships in distress. Though built as a deterrent to British naval strength, the revolutionary U.S. Navy side-wheeled frigate soon became entangled in civil duties. Like a magnet for trouble, the Michigan found itself unavoidably attracted to calamity, leaving in its wake a collection of eyewitness accounts to these momentous yet largely forgotten occurrences. Incidents such as the timber rebellion of the 1850s, which occurred in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, are documented for the first time. Other episodes such as the assassination of "King" Strang on Beaver Island and the destruction of the community there are studied under the light of newly discovered sources. Still other chapters reveal the chaos create