Blue Water Bridge

Port Huron Michigan sits at the Southern end of Lake Huron where the St. Clair River begins.  The Blue Water Bridge connects the city to Sarnia Ontario Canada.  We happened to stay here a few days to visit Randy’s aging aunt Evelyn and cousin Linda in nearby Owosso.

Turns out Port Huron is a pretty interesting town.  There is a beautiful waterfront park which is enjoyed by walkers and fisher people.  We visited the Thomas Edison Depot Museum in the historic Fort Gratiot railroad depot built by the Grand Trunk Railroad in 1858.  The museum tells the story of the young Thomas Edison who grew up in Port Huron and first worked on the train reporting and hawking newspapers from 1859 to 1863.  There are artifacts from the site of the Edison family home that include some of the young wizard’s early tinkering.

Statue of young Thomas Edison

The Thomas Edison Depot Museum

The lakefront also featured a beautiful lighthouse.  Fort Gratiot lighthouse is the oldest in Michigan.  Built in 1829 it was heightened to 82 feet in the 1860s.  It still watches over one of the busiest waterways in the world.

Fort Gratiot Lighthouse

The lightship Huron is also on permanent display along the river.  Horon was the last operating lightship in the Great Lakes.  It was retired after serving to make a shoal near the entrance to the St. Clair River for over 50 years.

No trip along the Great Lakes waterway system is complete without seeing a huge lakes freighter bearing down.

For a great read and another angle on the Thomas Edison story, read “The Last Days of Night” by Graham Moore.  It is a historical fiction account of the Current War and the battle between Edison and George Westinghouse over the patent for the lightbulb.