Great Lakes passenger steamers had to divest themselves of their marine divisions on the lakes. Under this divestiture law, the "Milwaukee Clipper", for instance, was sold by the Anchor Line along with four other railroad-owned company fleets to the newly formed Great Lakes Transit Corporation. Under this flag, the "Clipper" carried passengers along her old route until retired in 1970. Before trains and, later, cars became prevalent, summer vacation areas in more remote areas around the Great Lakes were accessible primarily only by steamer. Northern Michigan's tourist and resort areas began to grow in this manner in the late 1890s. In the late 19th
Fountain of the Great Lakes the time of the dedication, Taft described the Ferguson Fund commission to sculpt the fountain as a turning point in his career that led to increased publicity, more commissions, and growing recognition in the community, which combined to give him the encouragement for further commitment to the arts. He hoped that the "Fountain of the Great Lakes" would mark a new era of civic beautification and that it would also mark the beginning of the Chicago school of sculpture. The dream that Chicago would be the epicenter of the sculpting universe had been bred during the World's Columbian Exposition twenty