Join Hands to Revive the AuSable River Queen

From Laurie Rice

Dear community,

The AuSable River Queen has steadily been the main tourist attraction for the Oscoda/Ausable area since 1966. We are one of a handful of owners. We purchased the business from my mom in 2012. For the most part, things were going great then a certain organization detained our boat for leaving the dock for more than 30 days at the beginning of our seasons and then COVID affected us because we lost all of our bus groups. It’s been an uphill struggle, especially because it is only a seasonal business.

Now it is time for the boat to have an out of water inspection on the bottom which will cost upwards of $15,000. We have held our dock for two years at the start of each season for what turns out to be no reason. Also, AT&T didn’t want to give us our landline for two summers in a row and it took 30 days each season to get up and running, which took a lot of our business away. So there are many factors that have brought us to where we are right now but we have a lot on our books for the season and desperately need to get running again.

With this being said, we are hoping the community can come together to save this community treasure, where many people and families have shared many memories, and hopefully there will be more to come.