Port Huron is a town that’s got tourism right! This Michigan town opened its doors on Saturday, June 6^th with free admissions to all their attractions.  Trolleys and buses provided transportation to the designated points of interest.  Greeters at each attraction made visitors feel welcome. “Be A Tourist in Your Own Town” encouraged folks to take a tour, learn interesting facts, and have fun – for free!

Now, I do not live in Port Huron, but you could call me a temporary resident because my RV bus conversion happened to be parked there. And, as I often say, “Home is where my husband Ed parks it!” I felt welcome as long as I kept it quiet that I am cheering for the Pittsburgh Penguins, not the Detroit Red Wings, in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In the north part of town, I visited the Thomas Edison Deport Museum.  As a boy, Edison worked at the depot and he grew up on Lake Huron. The Depot Museum showcases the life of this inventor. 

The Knowlton’s Ice Museum deceives you.  From the outside, it looks so small.  Once inside, the displays fill what was once a large furniture warehouse.  This museum preserves and displays over 3,000 items used in the cutting, harvesting and selling of natural ice from Lake Huron.  Special saws, ice tongs, ice picks, ornate household ice boxes, and antique ice wagons are on display and much more.

At Bean Dock, the Port Huron Seaway Terminal, I boarded three ships.  The Bramble spent 59 years as part of the U.S. Coast Guard fleet in search and rescue, icebreaking and tending to buoys before being decommissioned in 2003.  When first commissioned in 1944, the Bramble played a part in a significant experiment.  The cutter participated in the first test of the effect of an atomic bomb on a surface ship.  Surviving that ordeal, the Bramble became one of the first U.S. ships to circumnavigate the North American Continent.  She traveled 4,500 miles on these partially charted waters back in 1957. 

The Highlander Sea impressed me with her high glossed deck made of douglas fir and mahogany and the thick rolls of compressed sails some measuring 3,580 square feet. The intricate lines of ropes made triangles against the blue sky. This gaft-rigged schooner was built in Essex, Massachusetts in 1924 and endured a long navigational history before becoming Port Huron’s flagship ambassador

A uniformed young man escorted me and a handful of other people through the Grayfox.  Originally build in 1985 as a Torpedo Weapon Retriever (TWR), the ship was then known as TRW 825.  The Navy used this ship for ten years to launch and retrieve test torpedoes and targets before retiring the vessel.  Since 1998 and renamed the Grayfox, the ship has been commissioned for training U.S. Naval Sea Cadets – the largest Sea Cadet training ship in the United States. 

Before I boarded the Grayfox, I asked a Cadet keeping a tally about the number of people who had come aboard that day.  “You’re number 511,” he said with a quick glance at the clipboard.  Only a few more had passed his sentry after me.  The “Be A Tourist in Your Own Town” activities ended at 4 PM.  As Tourist #511, I have now become an ambassador for Port Huron.  What a great way to get people excited about what a town has to offer!