SOO JUNCTION, MICH. — The Toonerville Trolley and Tahquamenon Falls Riverboat Tours have been transporting visitors through the magical northwoods for nearly a century. They are well known for providing a unique and nature-centred experience around Michigan’s roaring Tahquamenon Falls.
This season, however, the operation’s 96th, is potentially its final run.
Retirement is on the horizon for the Stewarts, the current, fourth-generation owners of the beloved tour company. In 2022 they had listed the business for sale hoping to find someone to take the operation it to its centennial and then beyond. In this moment, they have no buyer and in the event of no one coming forward, they say, the last scheduled run of the season on Oct. 7 could very well be the final run ever.
Co-owner Dixie Stewart, whose husband is the great-grandson of one of the company’s founding partners, indicated that the news has caused the tours’ passengers dismay. For many, the tour has been an annual family event for decades.
“It’s a daily occurrence on trip days that passengers will come in and they’ve been there before: They’re celebrating something, they were there on their honeymoon 50 years ago, they brought their kids and now they’re bringing their grandkids,” Stewart says. “I had a lady yesterday on the boat who had a 20-year-old brochure that she’d been keeping, and she wanted all the people on the crew to sign it.”
Historically, the tours date back to the 1920′s. At that time, Joe Beach, a local conservation officer, began receiving requests from visitors to join him on his patrols along the Tahquamenon River. In those days, there was no easy way to access river’s Upper Falls — the largest waterfall in Michigan, stretching 200 feet across with a drop of nearly 50 feet. Correspondingly, Beach’s daily river runs, despite being gruelling at 14 hours long, became known as an opportunity to get a rare and thrilling glimpse of this natural wonder.
Beach officially launched his river tour business in 1927. He leased a stretch of nearby narrow-gauge railroad tracks, which had been originally used by a lumberman named Robert Hunter, and created a passenger shortcut to the river. The very first Toonerville Trolley was created by retrofitting a Model T truck and trailer with train wheels. Additionally, a 30-passenger vessel named the Betty B was the original riverboat. Beach and Hunter solidified their relationship as business partners, and by 1938 the trips had grown so popular that a new boat was constructed complete with a dance floor, jukebox and room for 400 people.
Currently, the 6 1/2 hour wilderness tour commences with a 35-minute narrow gauge train ride, followed by a 2-hour, narrated riverboat cruise. Upon reaching the rapids above the falls, the riverboat docks for one hour and fifteen minutes, which allows for a nature hike to a private view of the upper Tahquamenon Falls.
The boat, today, has its own grille on board that serves a variety of delicious snack items including hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, ham & cheese, chicken sandwiches, sloppy joes, nachos, vegetarian burgers, and grilled cheese.
Despite the trends experienced as a result of the economy and tourism, the business has adjusted accordingly, however the visitor experience remains largely unchanged. It is thought that this may explain why it holds such nostalgia. Each trip still starts off with a ride on a quaint train trolley transporting guests to a private dock, where they board a riverboat for a peaceful float down the Tahquamenon River to a viewing platform that offers unique perspective of the Tahquamenon’s stunning Upper Falls.
Even with the state opening the Taquamenon Falls State Park in 1947 that offered an easy walk right up to the falls, visitors’ love for the tours endured.
“We kept on doing it because it was an alternative way of seeing the falls that most people enjoy: You know, to kick back and relax and enjoy the scenery and wildlife and nature,” Stewart says.
The Toonerville Trolley website, alongside navigation tabs to booking details, tour schedules and fare prices, now offers an additional link that says, “Buy Us!” The starting sale price is $500,000 and includes the business and its equipment. The Stewarts have indicated, however, that they are open to offers from serious buyers. A low-cost lease for the land will be negotiated with the sale.
Should a buyer not present, Stewart stated that the company will arrange the sale of the equipment before closing up shop for good.
“We’re still keeping our fingers crossed,” she says. “We would absolutely love to be able to sell it and have it continue. But we’re at the point, age-wise and everything, that this is just getting to be too much. We’re not able to get the kind of help we need in order to be able to continue.So we really don’t have a whole lot of choice but to close the door.”
— with files from mlive.com
