C. D. Whitcomb

A Lake Tour to Picturesque Mackinac C. D. Whitcomb

Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Passenger Agent C. D. Whitcomb addressed passenger questions in the book A LAKE TOUR TO PICTURESQUE MACKINAC through prose and images as he tempted customers to spend their money to travel on his ships and stay at Grand Hotel. A great deal of pressure was put on Whitcomb as he wrote about the hotel since the first nail hadn't been hammered in the building of the hotel as the book was printed. Yet, Grand Hotel manager John Oliver Plank was already taking reservations for rooms that didn't exist as builder Charles Caskey raced against time, money and labor strikes to meet Plank's promises. Plank and Caskey finished the hotel in 93 days and it opened on July 10, 1887. While only open for six weeks that year, the passengers did come and in no small part to the efforts of the Detroit & Cleveland and the words of C. D. Whitcomb in this book. Would you have boarded one of the ships based on Whitcomb's descriptions?