The USS Michigan continued in Naval service after the Civil War. In 1866, the ship captured and interned the army of the Fenian Brotherhood while they were returning from their invasion of Canada.
In 1905, its name was changed to the Wolverine so the Navy could build the battleship USS Michigan. In 1913, towed the brig USS Niagara around the Great Lakes in commemoration of the centennial of the War of 1812's Battle of Lake Erie in 1813.
It served as a training ship for the Pennsylvania State Militia from 1913 to 1923 when the engine broke and ended her active career. In 1927, the hulk was pushed onto a sand bank in Misery Bay on Presque Isle State Park Peninsula and loaned to the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, as a relic.
In 1948 it was sold to the Foundation for the Preservation of the Original USS Michigan, Inc., but they were unable to raise funds for its preservation and restoration and later that year, the hulk was cut up and sold for salvage. The following year, the prow was erected as a monument in Wolverine Park in Erie.
It was getting into bad shape when, in 1988, it was moved to the Erie Maritime Museum, preserved and it is still there.
The History of a Ship. --B-R'er
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