Launched in 2021, our Skiff & Schooner program provides place-based, experiential learning opportunities for high school and college students in communities around the Detroit River. Tall ship outings and boat-building workshops offer engaging, hands-on activities that foreground the river’s rich cultural and environmental heritage. The Detroit River theme invites students to rediscover the bounty of this waterway not only as a vital natural resource but also as a cornerstone of community heritage, through its roles as the homeland of the People of the Three Fires, a center of anti-slavery resistance, an industrial powerhouse, and a site of community mobilization for environmental justice. By providing high-impact learning opportunities on the river and its shores, our program invites participants to connect the river’s stories to their own lives and lay claim to their place in shaping their region’s future.
Program Goals:
- Provide healthy, outdoor educational activities for local youth
- Activate the Detroit River’s potential as a multi-purpose experiential learning classroom
- Cultivate cultural and environmental awareness and stewardship
- Re-center the Detroit River as a site of community identity and civic life
- Build a broad, lasting coalition to support the development of river-based educational and community heritage activities for the Detroit River region
Program Content:
Over the past four summers, the Skiff & Schooner Program has hosted dozens of river-themed educational schooner sails on the Detroit River, along with three week-long, intensive boat-building workshops at the Dossin Museum and Riverside Marina. Participants had the opportunity to hoist the sails on a historical tall ship, row wooden skiffs they’d crafted with their own hands, and participate in hands-on learning labs, offered by community experts and U-M faculty, on topics ranging from principles of buoyancy and the resurgence of Great Lakes sturgeon to the many-layered histories of Belle Isle and the Midnight Station on the Underground Railroad.
Currently Scheduled Programs:
Detroit River schooner sail programs are scheduled for selected dates in July, August, and September 2025. Morning and afternoon educational sails depart from the schooner dock next to the lighthouse at Milliken State Park. Please note that sail outings are chartered for pre-arranged youth and classroom groups only. While the schooner is available as a backdrop for photos before and after scheduled outings, we regret that no public tours or sails are available at this time. For information about scheduling future group outings, please reach out using our Contact Us page.
Program Partners:
The program is supported by a broad coalition including the Charles Wright Museum, the Detroit Historical Society, Healthy Kidz, Inc., the Inland Seas Education Association, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The University of Michigan has, since 2017, served as a convener of this coalition and a catalyst for the development of this project. Significant funding support has been provided by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, the DTE Energy Foundation, and the University of Michigan’s Office of the Provost and College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
Videos:
The two brief videos included below provide an overview of the two components of our program.
Support:
The Detroit River Story Lab’s research projects and educational programs are supported through University of Michigan pilot funding, foundation grants, and contributions from individual and organizational donors. Finding sustainable funding for the experiential learning programs we offer for Detroit Public Schools classes and local organizations remains a challenge. Online contributions to the dedicated scholarship fund we have established to support our youth programming work are always welcome!
Partners
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Detroit Historical Society, Wright Museum, Inland Seas Education Association
Date
Piloted Summer 2021
Links
- News Coverage
- For additional media coverage, visit our collection of Story Lab News
