Alpena - A Stunning Salute for Her Final Visit This Season!

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Here is the Alpena arriving in the Twin Ports of Duluth/Superior on the morning of December 6, 2025 for what is likely to be her final visit of the season. As always, she was carrying dry bulk cement from Alpena, Michigan to offload at the Amrize dock in Superior.

This was the fourth visit in as many months, but the Alpena definitely saved up her best salutes for the last visit. She blew a might master salute from both of her steam horns... located on the front of her smokestack... stunning the crowd that gathered to see her. This was the first master salute I've heard in person from the Alpena after making videos for over ten years. (She sounded a master salute in a previous season, but I wasn't present to capture it.) I zoomed in a little so we could enjoy watching the steam escape from her dual horns.

After witnessing the Alpena's arrival with a large crowd in Canal Park, I moved over to Connor's Point in Superior, where I basically had the show all to myself. As the Alpena made her way through the harbor ice, the grinding sound was unmistakable. While her path had been previously cleared of ice, it had re-frozen again by the time she crossed the harbor. The Alpena moved slowly to avoid hitting the ice too hard, which gave me extra time to take several different views as she passed in front of me.

I never get tired of watching the Alpena in action, so I was pleased we got to see her four times this year... especially given her late start due to turbine issues. There is no other ship on the lakes quite like her. Long may she continue to sail!

The Alpena started her life as the 639-foot Leon Fraser in 1942, the first of five "super" carriers known as the Fraser class (or AA-class). She spend her first 40 years of service carrying mostly iron ore until she was laid up in 1982... mostly due to larger lakers (including the 1000 footers) rendering the older straight-deck steamers somewhat obsolete. Her four sister ships all met the scrapyard torch in 1988-1989. In 1989, the Leon Fraser was acquired by Fraser Shipyards in Superior to be converted into a cement hauler. Unlike other vessels that were lengthened to give them new life, the Fraser was shortened to 519 feet to serve her new role. Following conversion, she was acquired by Inland Lakes Management and renamed the Alpena, starting her life as a cement hauler in 1991... a role she still serves in today. While older hulls are used on the lakes as barges and storage vessels, the Alpena is the oldest self-contained lake carrier still in operation today. She still runs with her original De Laval cross-compound steam turbine, which puts out 4,400 shp (shaft horsepower). May she continue to sail for many more years to come!