U.S. Coast Guard Helps with Annual Christmas Tree Ship

In a report by the U.S. Coast Guard, the annual Christmas Tree Ship will be underway soon. The USCGC Mackinaw will soon have over 1,000 Christmas Trees on board. They will be brought on deck at Millard D. Olds Memorial Moorings. The Mackinaw crew, their families, and the Ogemaw Heights High School Navy JROTC Cadets will bring them on board.

The Salvation Army in Cheboygan will be given 200 of the trees for distribution by the Salvation Army, Fire Department, and Police Department. They will go to families that may not have been able to provide a little holiday spirit on their own.

The tree growers in the Cheboygan region sold the trees to the Chicago Christmas Tree Ship committee. The Chicago Christmas Tree Ship Committee, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Sea Partners Program, Chicago Navy Pier, and the boaters of the marine community all work together to make this mission possible every year.

Ada S. McKinley Community Services will be in charge of getting the trees to the right people once the trees arrive at their final destination.

Rouse Simmons was the first Christmas Tree Ship in the early 1900's. When she sailed in to port with the newly cut trees on board, it was a sign of Christmas. The re-enactment event began in 2000, when the USCGC (WAGB 83) took up the reigns of the project. Now it is the second year of the USCGC Mackinaw (WLBB 30).

One of Mackinaw's main missions is to provide Aids to Navigation operations in Southern Lake Michigan. It generally works in the areas in and around Gary, Indiana and Calumet Harbor, Illinois.

The Rouse Simmons disappeared in 1912 and many myths have surrounded the ship ever since. One of the favorites is that a bottle was found that explains what happened to the ship and crew. It mentions that the note was on a torn piece of paper and sealed in a bottle with a cork made out of a piece of Christmas Tree wood. It was signed by the Captain.

Another puts the late Captain's wife in charge of other Christmas Tree ships after his death. This rumor seems to have emerged from the fact that at one time the family sold trees from the deck of a ship to give people the memory of the Christmas Tree ship.