USCG Cutter Mackinaw WAGB 83
Built in 1944 at a cost of $10 million, U.S. Coast Guard cutter MACKINAW had six ten-cylinder engines that enabled it to cut through several feet of lake ice. The powerful steel icebreaker was commissioned during World War II to aid year-round navigation so freighters could carry raw materials for war production. For sixty-two years MACKINAW left its home port of Cheboygan to open or extend the navigation season, clear the shipping lanes, or free vessels that were stuck in the ice. MACKINAW was unsurpassed in size and capability among icebreakers. When the coast guard decommissioned the vessel in 2006, it was given to the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum.
Plaque via Michigan History Center