Dockporters Keep the Island Moving

This story first appeared in the Mackinac Island Town Crier on October 5 2023

During peak departure and arrival times, down on Mackinac Island’s docks along Main Street, the spectacle of bikers weaving in and out of tourists and horse carriages gleaning over towers of stacked luggage in their baskets is a truly unique Island experience. There’s something about the Island dockporters that no matter how many times you visit, when a dockporter rides by carrying more suitcases than seems physically possible, it makes most visitors stop, turn their heads, and wonder, how?

There are many jobs on the Island you’d be hard-pressed to find in any other mainland city, or even other islands. Street sweepers and cleaners have one of the less glamorous jobs, following the Island’s horses to clean up after them and working late into the night and early into the morning to wash off what the shovel can’t pick up, giving Island streets the illusion to those who don’t know any better that it rains every night during peak season. Dray drivers deliver all the Island’s goods by horse and dray, in place of mail and UPS trucks. But the men and women who work the luggage down on the docks, on their reinforced Schwinn Heavy Dutis, tricked out with large Wald baskets and bungee cords, hold a particular fascination with tourists and outsiders seemingly unmatched by any other profession.

Colby Sabin, a dockporter with Inn on Mackinac, worked his second season on the Island this summer. 

An Overview

Dockporters work for specific hotels, but they also work like a big team, said David Del Zoppo, a dockporter who’s worked down at the Iroquois Hotel for 12 consecutive seasons, starting in 2012 after graduating from Northern Michigan University in 2011. Dockporters fall into the job in all sorts of ways, and after Mr. Del Zoppo visited the Island as a graduation gift, he fell in love with the place.

“I thought to myself, if I don’t have anything lined up next summer, I’ll apply for some jobs on the Island,” he said. “I just got lucky and was hired as an Iroquois dockporter for my very first season.”

A dockporters’ schedule depends on the ferry schedule and the whims of the guests staying at their hotels. The first boat arrives at 8 a.m., so you have to be ready in the morning, Mr. Del Zoppo said, and they work until the last guest checks in, or, the last boat arrives. There are long days with lots of activity in short bursts of time, and then downtime where they hang out on the docks, although sometimes there’s not much downtime at all. By the time the next boat comes in, you start all over, Mr. Del Zoppo said.

Colby Sabin, a second-year dockporter for the Inn on Mackinac, came to the job similarly. He had vacationed to the Island as a kid and had friends who worked up here, thought it would be a cool experience and eventually began looking at it more seriously. He wanted to have a fun summer job and loved his first season, he said, though he wasn’t originally planning on coming back for a second. He made the decision at the last minute, and this season will probably be his last, he said, then he wants to go put his marketing degree from Grand Valley State University to use. When he first arrived last year, he said, he didn’t entirely know what he was getting himself into.

“I can remember when I first got off the boat last season, it was really overwhelming, just hearing all the dockporters calling out their hotels, and it’s just so busy, everyone’s running around with the luggage,” Mr. Sabin said. “I just remember thinking, wow, this looks really fast-paced and physically demanding, I hope I can keep up.”

And he did learn to keep up. Most dockporters agree, the mechanics of the job isn’t as hard as it looks. You get into a rhythm, Mr. Sabin said, and learn how to stack the luggage to work with you instead of against you. The heaviest suitcases go up against the handlebars, and the hard suitcases work well as a base for the rest.

“The job requires a degree of strength, but you don’t need to be Herculean,” Jim Bolone said, a dockporter from the ‘80s and co-author of “The Dockporter” and “Somewhere in Crime” novels.

The first few weeks are a lot of learning, Mr. Del Zoppo said, and it’s kind of like a puzzle in your head,“like Tetris,” he said. The veterans help the rookies until they get a hang of it. It’s all about efficiency, working smarter and not harder, both Mr. Sabin and Mr. Del Zoppo said. Using a cart if you can, and arrange your loads by which dock you must drop off or pick up from.

What can be harder than the science of stacking suitcases, according to Robert Chambers, a famed former dockporter for the Windermere Hotel where he now works the front desk, is actually convincing the stranger you’ve just met at the boat dock to let you take their luggage. Dockportering is all about people skills and customer service, and there’s more that goes on behind the scenes than biking down the road. Coordinating with the front desk, making sure the right luggage gets to the right room, and the timing of it all.

“The fact that somebody will just trust that process as soon as they arrived at this crazy place, I think is a lot more impressive than riding down the street with six suitcases in a basket,” Mr. Chambers said.

History

Dockporters have been around on the Island since the first hotels operated in the early 1800s. They didn’t start out on bikes, using wagons or two-wheeled carts or by foot. No one is really sure when dockporters started using bikes, except that bike baskets began to become commonplace for dockporters around the end of World War 2, according to a “History of the Dockporter on Mackinac Island” draft report created by members of the Mackinac Island Dockporters Association on their Facebook page founded by Scott Kennedy. Roger Priebe, a dockporter at Murray Hotel from 1966 to 67, helped with the report and helps to manage the page, and posts frequent updates about Island and bygone dockporter life to the page, which now serves as an informal meeting ground for dockporters. Mr. Priebe said he’s noticed some changes throughout the years of the role of dockporters, but one thing that seemed to have stayed the same are the dockporters hanging out at the docks, yelling the names of their hotels to greet their guests.

The history of dockporters are defined by different eras. Dockporters still dressed preppy in the ’70s, though the hotel caps and ties were mostly phased out, and the MIDPA was “formally inaugurated” in 1973, probably as a joke, the research claims. In the ’80s large group bike rides known as porter jams, and dockporter balls were taking off and growing. Legends made their way into the ‘90s and early 2000s. Porters from different eras all seem to think that they were in the golden days of dockportering.

“Tonight, we drink. Tomorrow, we ride!” is still a well-used mantra.

Dockporters can receive tickets for overloading their bicycles if they break a city ordinance requiring bicycles to be operated safely, with tickets usually issued if a load is too tall or wide. Mr. Chambers once received an overload ticket for $510 in 2012, eventually getting off with a warning. Though he now understands the police were just trying to do their jobs.

“I’ll take all the blame,” he said.

Brad Conkey worked as head dockport- er for Mission Point Resort in 1989, and remembers assembling the “dream team” of dockporters. His entire job as head dockporter was to keep the other dockporters in check, he remembers, which wasn’t an easy feat.

“A dockporter is an entertainer,” Mr. Conkey said, and they’re usually strutting their stuff for tips. He recalled how dockporters work to time their arrivals at the hotels with the guests, so they can see them balancing loads. “It really was a job just to keep them (in line).”

Joan Slater, known as one of the first female dockporters, was head dockporter of Grand Hotel in 1977 and 78, which eventually turned into a 40-year long career on the Island. She worked scheduling the other dockporters, meeting the boats, she said, and dealing with the luggage. Those days the luggage carts never left the docks, and they hand loaded the luggage onto the drays. She hired other women on her staff, such as Karla Slick, Lori Biggerstaff and Ada Chambers, and said her being one of the first women dockporters never really had any impact on the job. Everyone she worked with was great, she said, and the people were the best part of the job and many became lifelong friends.

One of the biggest changes she said she’s seen for dockporters over the years is the longer season. What used to be a 3-month summer gig has turned into a half-theyear, six-month season, running May to October.

“A lot of people think it’s just a summer job, but really I live here as much as I live anywhere else,” Mr. Del Zoppo said. “So, I consider it a home away from home.”

Mr. Bolone and Dave McVeigh, dockporters in the 1980s, remember there being lots of creative people amongst the dockporter ranks of their days, and the two recently reconnected and released their first book titled after the profession in 2021. “The Dockporter” became a hit, and they released their second book, “Somewhere in Crime,” earlier this summer. Mr. McVeigh and Mr. Bolone remember their dockporter years fondly, defined by wild nights and crazy antics and many, many friends. It was a job of athleticism and salesmanship, Mr. McVeigh described. Knowing they would get to come back in the summer, Mr. Bolone said, was like a shadow of excitement throughout the rest of the year. He enjoyed school, he said, but the anticipation of another summer as a dockporter was like a catalyst for him during the off-season.

“It made those winters bearable,” Mr. McVeigh said. He remembers trying to describe the job to his friends at school, which was more difficult before the days of smartphones. It made it feel like their own secret society.

Camaraderie

Dockportering is a very social job. Ask any dockporter on the street what the best part of the job is, and there’s a good chance they’ll answer that it’s all about the people. The people they get to work with on the docks, on the roads and in the hotels, but the guests they get to meet and talk with every day. The Island is so small, you’re probably going to see those people you meet at some point during their stay, Mr. McVeigh said about his time as a dockporter. Some guests, Mr. Del Zoppo said, start to recognize you over the years and become like family. It’s nice for guests to see a familiar face. He likes to travel, he said, and working as a dockporter means he gets to meet people from all different places.

“I really think that is the key to a happy life,” Mr. Del Zoppo said. “Some of my best friends are from all over the world. Without Mackinac I just don’t think I’d have that opportunity naturally.”

Another part of the job, Mr. Sabin described, is giving out recommendations and answering guests’ questions. Dockporters are usually guests’ first impression of the Island, so it’s all about making them feel welcome and comfortable, giving them a good start to their vacation.

“Every dockporter, she or he is an ambassador. They are a microphone for the Island,” Mr. Bolone agreed. “You’re also a diplomat…you’re going to engage with people and they’re going to ask you questions.”

Mr. Sabin said he likes getting to work outside, and if they have downtime, the dockporters can often be found hanging out on the docks.

Another trait that comes in handy with being a dockporter is a good sense of humor.

“We joke around,” Mr. Del Zoppo said. “We all think of ourselves as athletes and comedians.”

All the porters help each other, Mr. Del Zoppo said, like a brotherhood. They call each other when others’ luggage comes in, help each other stack bags, whatever they need. It’s teamwork that often allows rookie dockporters to learn fast, even if they take a dump (slang for falling with a load of luggage) or two.

“It’s a high stress, fast paced environment that you either embrace or eats you alive,” Mr. Chambers said. “Teamwork is a high value, and thick skin is a good thing to have.”

Dockportering is practically an Island subculture. And whether the porters are rookies or veterans, spending a few years biking during college or making a career out of it, it’s the camaraderie of the game that sticks out to most.

“No matter where you go, you’ll always know someone,” Mr. Sabin said. “You’re never really alone on the Island.”