During the summer, the ship's triple decks would be filled with passengers enjoying the 90-minute, 18-mile (29 km) boat ride to the Boblo Island Amusement Park.

Columbia became the setting for an historic Civil Rights battle in 1945 when a young African American woman named Sarah Elizabeth Ray joined her classmates for a celebratory graduation cruise aboard the ship.

Ray enlisted the help of the NAACP in filing a complaint, and the State of Michigan charged the company with violating its civil rights law.

The company claimed due to their routes crossing the Canada–US border that they were engaged in international commerce and were not subject to state regulations.

In 2004 a team led by the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy had Columbia "shrink-wrapped" to reduce further deterioration while they considered purchase and restoration.

Plans for the restored ship included daily excursions from the west side of Manhattan to the communities of the Hudson Valley.

[10] In September 2014, Columbia was towed from Detroit to Toledo, Ohio, for dry docking in preparation for moving to New York.

[9] The video for the 2017 single "Score The Sky" by the UK band Lost Horizons was filmed at locations including the SS Columbia.