Last of the Leelanau Schooners

By: Paul Koss

Just a little story about the ending of an era here on the northern Great Lakes. The lakes used to be the only avenue of transporting for anything and everything - people, cargo and information. Now we've got cars, planes, trucks, traffic jams and the internet. I guess that's progress.

Click the Play button below to listen...

The Schooner Madeline

Well they brought her nose round through the teeth of an October gale,
Six lonely souls turning their heads to the sleet and the hail,
With a half empty hold and leaks 'round their seams,
"Don't let her fall off, keep the waves off her beam!"
She'll bring them all safely back home like she's done without fail,
She's the last of the Leelanau schooners to ever set sail.

Now they're bringing her home for the last time; they're well on their way
On the lumber run from Escanaba down to Sleeping Bear Bay.
But the pines have played out, the cargoes have changed,
Now the long boats haul iron from the Mesabi Range.
It's thirty three years from the morning she slipped off her ways,
Now she's the last of the Leelanau schooners at the end of her days.

So it's one more last trip in the shadow of the tall ships of yore,
They're lost in the wake of the sailors that went there before.
Some left for the city, some toil on the piers,
Some work on the railroad that came North last year.
But tonight all eyes search through the dark for that welcoming shore,
Where the last of the Leelanau schooners will take them once more.

Now the Manitou Light shines a beacon to point their way home,
And it's there that she'll stay till the water's reclaimed what's her own.
‘Cause the steamers have whistled her days to an end,
No more will she dance on the song of the wind.
No more will her sails greet the morning, her bow split the foam,
She's the last of the Leelanau schooners and they're bringing her home.

The last of the Leelanau schooners is coming back home.