With the warmer weather arriving, thoughts turn to summer time activities. One such activity was boarding the Boblo Island Ferries to Boblo Island Amusement Park down the Detroit River located across from Amherstburg,  Ontario. This week’s Throwback Thursday pick is of the Columbia Boblo Island Ferry, one of two ferries that made the journey between Windsor/Detroit to the amusement park. The other ferry was the SS. St. Claire. The Columbia was build in 1902 for the Detroit, Belle Isle & Windsor Ferry Company by the Detroit Ship Building Company. She had three decks and was able to transport 3,200 passengers at a time. With attendance declining at the amusement park, both ferries made their last run on September 2, 1991. The Boblo Island amusement park closed two years later. Today the Columbia is located in Buffalo New York waiting for renovations to be completed. If you are interested in other historic images of Windsor, please visit the library’s digital exhibits page “Windsor’s History and Pictures” at https://windsorpubliclibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/.

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