Correction: Corrected September 17, 2026: the water-level paragraph now reports the archived NOAA station observations and their limits. Unsupported navigation implications were withdrawn. NOAA measurement context.
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The articulated tug-barge Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader completed a fast turnaround at Monroe on Thursday that is worth watching on a map. The ATB arrived at Monroe with a coal load for DTE, ran out its coal, and then departed for Brevort, up on the northern Straits of Mackinac shore, all within the same September 3 report window.
Brevort is not a coal port. The departure suggests the pair is repositioning or picking up a new assignment rather than continuing the same commodity loop. The Sandusky end of this movement is background: vessel reports for Wednesday show the VanEnkevort/Erie Trader at the Norfolk Southern coal dock in Sandusky, which accounts for how she arrived at Monroe loaded today.
For a watcher keeping score, the ATB covered coal dock to DTE unloading berth to northbound strait in a single daily cycle. That is the kind of turnaround that keeps a tug-barge unit earning its keep in a shoulder-season market.
Toledo is busy on the lake freight side this morning. Federal Caribou is loading at The Andersons, Ontario Venture is unloading at ADM, and Albert/Margaret is still loading at George Gradel, all three berths occupied simultaneously.
At Cleveland, Petite Forte/St. Marys Cement arrived with cement for the SMC Jefferson Street terminal, and Drawsko came in with steel coils and skids to Dock 2XX at the Port. Departing Cleveland was Wilfred Sykes, bound for Cedarville.
At Monroe, New York/Double Skin 509A remained at Michigan Paving, still working through its unloading as of the Thursday morning report.
Archived NOAA station observations: Lake Superior, Sault Ste. Marie (NOAA station 9076027): 1.722 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-02 23:54 local standard time. Lake Michigan, Chicago (NOAA station 9087031): 2.044 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-02 23:54 local standard time. Lake Huron, Harbor Beach, MI (NOAA station 9075002): 1.785 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-02 23:54 local standard time. Lake Erie, Cleveland (NOAA station 9063053): 3.13 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-02 23:54 local standard time. Lake Ontario, Rochester, NY (NOAA station 9052030): 3.481 feet relative to local Low Water Datum, observed 2026-09-02 23:54 local standard time. These are individual gauge readings, not lake-wide averages or channel depths. They do not establish vessel clearance, cargo limits or comparative navigability.
A stalled frontal boundary is draped across the Great Lakes and is expected to linger through Friday before a cold front shoves it southward. On Superior, a building ridge should quiet things toward the weekend; waves are running around 2 feet there and on Huron and Erie. Lake Michigan is seeing east to northeast winds as the front wavers north to south, with waves near 1 foot. Thunderstorm chances persist on Huron through the period. Deck-chair watchers on Saginaw Bay should expect a gray, unsettled Thursday with the front still overhead.
One hundred years ago this autumn, the steamer City of Bangor piled onto a reef near Copper Harbor on Lake Superior in a November storm, carrying a load of new automobiles from Detroit. What followed the grounding became a Great Lakes curiosity: salvagers recovered the cars from the wrecked hull in the dead of winter. The Keweenaw Historical Society this week accepted a framed painting by Upper Peninsula artist Clyde Mikkola commemorating the centennial of the wreck, a reminder that Lake Superior has been swallowing cargo, and occasionally surrendering it, for a very long time.