Dara Fillmore

Dara Fillmore graduated in 2014 with a degree in public history. She loves researching and writing about nearly anything historical- especially maritime and fur trade history. With her free time, she enjoys playing folk music and being outdoors.

By This Author:

A black and white image of the whaleback ship, the SS Meteor steaming across one of the Great Lakes

OBJECT HISTORY: The SS Meteor

The SS Meteor was launched as the SS Frank Rockefeller in Superior, Wisconsin by the American Steel Barge Company in 1896. The last remaining of only 44 “whaleback” ships ever built, it was designed by a Scottish immigrant named Alexander McDougall.

Color map of the Great Lakes showing the principle railway and water shipping routes in red.

Great Lakes Shipping and the SS Meteor

The SS Meteor sailed the lakes longer than most ships of her day, and in her many reincarnations she offers a portrait of how some of the industries on the Great Lakes changed– and what those changes meant for Wisconsin. 

A large group of workers pose for the camera in a port industrial landscape. A large cargo ship in the background. Handwritten caption reads, "1892 Building First Dry Dock."

The American Steel Barge Company

The American Steel Barge Company will illustrate that the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior were sometimes at odds over the shipping industry but typically ended up operating as a unit for economic reasons.