Under an 1818 treaty, the United States and Canada were each allowed to maintain one lightly armed warship on the Great Lakes, and for most of a century the U.S.S. Michigan filled that role for the United States. Built on the frontier at Pittsburgh in 1843 from wrought iron as the first iron ship in the U.S. Navy, it was temporarily constructed there, then disassembled, hauled by oxen 60 miles north to Erie, Pennsylvania, reassembled, and launched on Dec. 5, 1843. It spent most of its career at Erie, making summer training cruises across the lakes and usually spending the fall in the upper lakes assisting vessels wrecked by seasonal storms. In 1853, during federal action against Manistee and other Lake Michigan lumbering communities over timber taken from federal lands, the Michigan arrived at Bar Lake in darkness on August 28 so a U.S. Marshal could reach Manistee by sunrise, and in similar actions the following month at least five Manistee lumbermen were arrested and carried by the ship to federal courts for trial on timber theft charges. After the turn of the twentieth century, the Michigan was removed from active duty, transferred to the Naval Reserve on the Great Lakes, and rechristened Wolverine. In that role it returned to Manistee a number of times, including during years when the Michigan National Guard held statewide annual encampments there and the Wolverine stayed in the local port. After an engine failure in 1923, the Wolverine was laid up, and although many believed it should be preserved as a national monument, only ten feet of the bow were saved before the 106-year-old vessel was scrapped after a long career.