Ludington sits where Pere Marquette Lake meets Lake Michigan on the central west Michigan coast, and it is one of the most operationally interesting water level locations on the lake. Ludington is the home port of the SS Badger, the last coal-fired passenger and vehicle carferry on the Great Lakes, and the harbor that supports the Badger sets the local infrastructure context. I am Chris Izworski. I live in Bay City and I travel the west Michigan shore for both fishing and the broader regional circuit. This page is the orientation for Ludington property owners, Pere Marquette Lake riparians, and visitors.
Pere Marquette Lake is a drowned river mouth, formed where the Pere Marquette River meets Lake Michigan in a relatively wide and deep basin. The connection between Pere Marquette Lake and Lake Michigan is a wide, dredged navigation channel maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The channel admits Lake Michigan water level changes essentially without restriction. The implication is that Pere Marquette Lake elevation tracks Lake Michigan elevation almost exactly. Property owners on Pere Marquette Lake experience the full Lake Michigan envelope.
That open connection is also what makes Ludington a working deep-draft port. The Badger requires twenty-five feet of channel depth at its loading slip on the south side of Pere Marquette Lake. The Corps maintains channel depth through dredging on a multi-year cycle. Low water years stress the dredging program and produce occasional draft restrictions for the Badger and for the commercial vessels that visit the Pere Marquette Lake aggregate docks.
The SS Badger has run between Ludington and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, since 1953. The Ludington carferry slip on the south side of Pere Marquette Lake was originally built for a fleet of Pere Marquette Railway carferries. The infrastructure is over a century old in some elements and has been progressively upgraded. The Badger operates between mid-May and mid-October each year, and water level conditions in those months are within the typical seasonal high range for Lake Michigan, which is operationally favorable. Severe winter low water years could in principle affect spring fitout depth at the slip, though this has not been an operational constraint in recent decades.
Stearns Park on the Lake Michigan shore immediately north of the harbor entrance is the central public swimming beach for Ludington and the broader region. The Stearns Park beach is the most level-sensitive infrastructure in the city. In high water cycles, the beach contracts severely and the wave wash reaches the seawall protecting the city street. In low water cycles, the beach expands and provides hundreds of feet of additional sand for summer use. The 2019 to 2020 cycle delivered the worst beach conditions in recent local memory. The 2012 to 2013 cycle delivered some of the best.
The Ludington North Breakwater Light, the iconic distance marker that anchors the harbor entrance, was built in 1924 and has weathered the full historical envelope of Lake Michigan levels. The light is a useful long-term visual reference for what the local high water mark looks like. The breakwater itself is federal infrastructure and has been progressively rebuilt over the decades. Major storm events from the west can produce significant wave wash and occasional overtopping.
Six miles south of Ludington, the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant operates one of the largest pumped storage hydroelectric facilities in the world. The plant pumps water from Lake Michigan into a reservoir on the bluff and releases it back through generating turbines during peak demand periods. The plant has been operational since 1973 and is jointly owned by Consumers Energy and DTE Energy. The pumped storage operation does not measurably affect Lake Michigan water level, but the intake and outflow at the lake interface are visible features of the local shoreline and have been engineered against the full Lake Michigan envelope.
Ludington has its own NOAA water level gauge, station 9087023, located on the south breakwater. The Ludington gauge is the most directly relevant reading for Ludington harbor, Pere Marquette Lake, and the central west Michigan coast. It is the station I use for all planning in this region. For broader context, Mackinaw City to the north and Holland to the south provide useful regional comparison.
Hamlin Lake, ten miles north of Ludington, is a managed inland lake behind the Hamlin Dam at the Sable River outlet to Lake Michigan. Hamlin Lake elevation is set by the dam and is not directly governed by Lake Michigan stage. Property owners on Hamlin Lake have a much more stable level environment than Pere Marquette Lake riparians, similar to the Inland Route situation at Cheboygan. The trade is that Hamlin Lake is a managed system dependent on continued dam operations.
I cover the wider central west Michigan picture on the Lake Michigan overview. Questions specific to Ludington can reach Chris Izworski through chrisizworski.com.