Dan Austin

Detroit Free Press

The SS Columbia, one of the beloved but battered Boblo boats, has left Detroit for what is likely the last time.

Shortly after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the steamer left her longtime home in Ecorse, yanked away by tugs to Toledo. It is there that the nonprofit Columbia Project will lift the ship out of water, move it into drydock and get her shipshape again. Or at least shipshape enough to make the trek to New York state by next August. The Columbia Project has spent years working on a plan to return the boat to service in the Hudson River Valley -- and will spend some $10 million to $20 million to do it.

That means Detroit has likely seen the last of the SS Columbia. To learn more about the S.S. Columbia project, go to http://sscolumbia.org.

There was no pomp, no circumstance Tuesday. Organizers said they didn't want much fanfare or attention on the move until the boat safely arrived in Toledo around 4 p.m., but they promise there will be before the vessel is relocated to New York.

The Columbia was launched in 1902, making her the oldest propeller-driven steam excursion ship still in existence in the U.S. And for nearly 90 years, the Columbia ferried metro Detroiters to Boblo Island, an amusement park smack dab in the middle of the Detroit River. In 1910, the Columbia got itself a little sister, the SS Ste. Claire. The rest is Motor City lore. Generations of metro Detroiters caught a ride to the amusement park on one of the big boats.

But dwindling attendance and poor profit margins led to both Boblo boats to be taken out of service. The pair made their final trip Sept. 2, 1991. Boblo Island would close two years later.

For nearly two decades, the Columbia and Ste. Claire sat slowly rotting next to the U.S. Steel plant, as a lack of money put them in danger. And the years of neglect have taken their toll. The Columbia's creaky decks are pockmarked with holes and plywood flooring. The familiar "Boblo blue" paint curls on the railings and staircases. Rust dots the walls.

Through the nonprofit's efforts, the Columbia may avoid the scrap heap after all, even if it isn't in Michigan.

But what about the Columbia's younger sis, the Ste. Claire? Ron Kattoo, a Henry Ford Hospital doctor, bought her in 2006 and set out to renovate her. "We've lost so much," Kattoo told the Free Press back in 2009. "Tiger Stadium is gone. The state fair is in question. What is there for kids? There's nothing that compares with the Boblo boat. As a child, that was the greatest thing I looked forward to every summer."

There has been little progress in recent years. Go to www.bobloboat.com for more info on that renovation.

Dan Austin, assistant editor for opinion digital/interactive, also runs the Detroit architectural resource HistoricDetroit.org. He has written two books, "Forgotten Landmarks of Detroit" and "Lost Detroit." Contact him at daustin99@freepress.com.