Port Huron, Michigan Tourist in Your Home Town Day

Once a year, Port Huron residents can become tourists and never leave town.

On Port Huron's annual Tourist In Your Home Town day, the first Saturday in June, museums and outdoor attractions that usually charge admission are free. A free bus shuttle between them runs every two hours. You can board anywhere, get off anywhere, and stay as long as you want.

An alternative to the shuttle is a favorite walking tour of mine that begins at the Edison Depot Museum, continues at the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse, and ends at the Huron Lightship.

There's parking along the St. Clair River near the Edison Depot Museum, at the corner of State Street and Edison Parkway and almost under the Blue Water Bridge. The museum building is the restored Grand Trunk Railroad depot built in 1858.

Thomas Edison lived in Port Huron from age 7 through 16, and sold fruit, candy, and newspapers on Grand Trunk's Port Huron-Detroit trains from 1859 until 1863. The statue across Edison Parkway is of a young Tom Edison holding a tray in which he carried his wares.

The museum's timeline follows Edison from birth in Ohio through boyhood in Port Huron to world-famous inventor. Kids can try out a reproduction of the first telegraph. For film buffs, there's a life-size recreation of the "Black Maria," the world's first movie studio. Your record collector tour guide, who still thinks living in a town the phonograph's inventor called home is special, also recommends the museum's talking machine exhibits that include a working cylinder player.

For a virtual tour of other Edison Depot exhibits, visit its page on the Port Huron Museums web site, http://www.phmuseum.org/edison.html

Four blocks north of the Edison Depot on Wright Street, and two blocks east on Riverview -- about a fifteen minute walk -- is the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse. Built in 1829, it's Michigan's oldest, and still working. In the small entrance is a collection of informative newspaper articles on the Fort Gratiot Light, and lighthouses in general, compiled by lighthouse keeper Bob Hanford.

The lighthouse's small entrance and viewing platform mean only about six visitors at a time may enter. Be prepared to wait about a half hour. Visitors may not make the climb in open-toed shoes, since it's easy to stub one's toes on the steep, narrow iron staircase.

The riverfront between the bridge and Pine Grove Park is an excellent place for ship watching. You many see a thousand foot freighter on a regular run, a cruise ship leaving on a tour of the Great Lakes, or a brightly-colored ship flying a foreign flag. Pine Grove Park is the perfect spot for that picnic you'll have on your return visit to Port Huron, hi. It was also a favorite hangout of young Tom Edison. His family home stood on the site now occupied by nearby Edison Shores Condominiums. All accounts indicate he was, although a slow learner, a typical kid who played kid games -- and pulled off the occasional harmless prank -- with his neighborhood chums.

The Huron is another fifteen minute walk from our starting point. Now a museum at the foot of Edison Parkway, she sailed Lake Huron from 1935 to 1970. She warned freighters approaching the dredged Corsica Shoals waters about six miles north of the bridge. The Huron was the Great Lakes' last lightship, and today is the only lightship designated as a national historic landmark. She looks like she's ready to sail. Of particular interest to your radio buff tour guide is the showroom-new National ship-to-shore wireless rig.

This year, Port Huron Tourist In Your Home Town day falls on Saturday, June 2. Out-of-towners are, of course, welcome. For more information, call the city of Port Huron's visitor's info number, (810) 985-8843. Port Huron's Edison heritage and location on the world's busiest waterway make it a rewarding day trip destination.