Visitor Information

Shay Park is a small, quaint and mostly undeveloped park located in the downtown district, east of Judd Street between Main and Bay Streets. The park is owned and operated by the City of Harbor Springs and hosts two permanent outdoor exhibits. The first is a historic steel yacht, the Aha. The Aha is a 50' vessel and one of the largest artifacts in the collection of the Harbor Springs Area Historical Society. In 2021, the Historical Society finished a complete restoration of the steel watercraft and the boat was installed in Shay Park alongside two interpretive panels. In 2025, a restored Shay Locomotive was added to the outdoor displays. Learn more about both projects below.

Named in honor of inventor Ephraim Shay, the Shay Park was once home to Shay's machine shop and the city's first waterworks plant and reservoir. Today, the only building that remains of the original "Shay Complex" is Shay's hexagon house across the street, now the Ephraim Shay Works Museum.

Shay Locomotive

Locomotive C/N 2005, built in 1907 by Lima Locomotive Works, is a Class B Shay Locomotive. It was originally ordered by the Bering Manufacturing Company for use on their Bering, Kiam & Southern Railroad in Texas. It was later transferred to the W.T. Carter & Brother Lumber Company in Camden, where it remained in service until retirement. By 1970, it was on display at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. In 2021, the locomotive was transfered from the university to the Historical Society and restoration efforts began. In June 2025, the locomotive was moved to Shay Park and put on permanent display.

Aha Boat

Ephraim Shay began his experiments in boatbuilding around 1891. The often-told story of the craft’s namesake is that Shay was so pleased that the vessel actually floated when first put into the water that he cried out, “Aha! I’ve done it.” According to a quote from Shay printed in the Northern Tourist newspaper in July 1893, the purpose of building the Aha and for its subsequent remodeling, was “chiefly for experiment on both model and machinery, with speed as the chief end.” The final form of the vessel was illustrated in the local paper in 1894. That illustration matched the battered steel hull later acquired by the Harbor Springs Area Historical Society and now restored and on permanent display in Shay Park.

The Society worked in partnership with students at the Industrial Arts Institute in Onaway, Michigan from December 2019 until July 2021 to repair the dilapidated vessel. Plans were finalized with the City of Harbor Springs and the vessel was installed in Shay Park in 2021.

Learn more about the Aha and its restoration at the links below: