[5] Michipicoten primarily hauls taconite from Marquette, Michigan, to the Algoma Steel Mill in Sault Ste.

She was powered by a 7,700 shaft horsepower (5,700 kW) Bethlehem Steel cross compound steam turbine and two oil-fired Foster-Wheeler water tube boilers.

As Elton Hoyt 2nd was brought through the rivers, her cabins and pilothouse were carried on-deck, assembled in Chicago, and entered service on August 15, 1952.

[8] Over the course of the next nearly two decades, Elton Hoyt 2nd entered a pattern of shipping iron ore from Duluth, Minnesota, or Superior, Wisconsin, to a number of ports in the lower Great Lakes.

In the 1990s, the vessel was certified to carry grain,[8][6] and made several trips to Buffalo, New York, in addition to her regular loads of taconite.

On April 10, 2003, it was announced that Elton Hoyt 2nd was sold to Lower Lakes Towing, a Canadian shipping company.

Over the course of several months, her steam turbine system was replaced with a MaK 6M32C 6-cylinder 8,160 brake horsepower (6,080 kW) diesel engine and a new pitch propeller.

A member of the Coast Guard stated "It looks like a hull failure, which could be the result of stress, fatigue, age of the vessel," he said, but cautioned that a full investigation is needed to determine the cause for certain.

On June 20, 2024, Michipicoten arrived at Superior from Thunder Bay under her own power, escorted by the tugboat Helen H, bound for Fraser Shipyards for inspection and repair.