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Company Suspends Boat Tours At Sleeping Bear

Other episodes in this series: 
IPR News Features
Date: 
April 16, 2012

By Tom Kramer

A Lake Michigan sightseeing boat will not be sailing out of Frankfort this summer.

For the last couple of years, Pictured Rocks Tours, Incorporated operated the tours along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Last summer, one of the company’s ships, the Pictured Rocks, became disabled near Empire and the crew was forced to run the ship onto the beach.

In a statement released through the Benzie County Chamber of Commerce, a spokeswoman for the tour company says she hopes the tours return to the area next summer.

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See More: Lake Michigan, Sleeping Bear Dunes, tourism, travel

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Sleeping Bear Dunes Cruises, LLC Gone?

Submitted by James (not verified) on April 18, 2012 - 4:32am.
Why?! Where is the boat? After being yanked off the shores of Empire by a tug boat, the tour boat did sustain damage, but the steel hull was fine. The nature of the damages were nothing of the sort to keep the vessel from sailing again. Have you seen Munising's docks during summer? The owners of the vessel "Pictured Rocks," the parent company of SBDC, LLC, it would seem does well enough to have the tour boat fixed. Doesn't it make "business sense" to come back after the very natural attraction that the boat was brought down to see in the first place gains fresh national attention with a spot light from Good Morning America! Can somebody help us understand why an established tour boat company would not bring a boat back when there is ample opportunity to make money and lend further commerse to this beautiful area of Northern Lower Michigan? If the previous tour boat company were coming back, why is their company's Internet domain name up for auction? Frankfort deserves a real tour boat. There are many folks who would really enjoy observing Sleeping Bear Dunes, the shores of Benzie and Leelanau Counties from a boat's perspective out on Lake Michigan. The company, of which fills this unique niche, hopefully sooner than later, shall be welcomed.

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