Buckeye, after her sale to Columbia Transportation Division, downbound through the locks of Sault Ste. Marie in May 1991.

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Buckeye is a typical Great Lakes ore carrier. Its pilothouse is set forward at the bow. Stack and propulsion rest aft. What makes it atypical is that it was not built on the Great Lakes.

Buckeye is a product of Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point (Maryland) Shipyard. In fact, it was originally named for its birthplace. The Sparrows Point slid into the water on April 18, 1952, built for Bethlehem Steel. During the early 1950s, Great Lakes shipyards were busy building new vessels to meet iron ore tonnage increases created by the Korean War. Bethlehem needed extra capacity and built Sparrows Point at their east coast shipyard because Great Lakes yards were booked. It was one of the first vessels built off-lakes for Great Lakes service. Since the St. Lawrence Seaway did not open until 1959, Sparrows Point was towed down the Atlantic coast, around Florida, across the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi River and finally through the Illinois Waterway to Chicago, where it was completed for lakes service. The original length of 626 feet was a limitation placed by locks on the Illinois Waterway.

On its first Great Lakes trip, Sparrows Point called at the Twin Ports of Duluth-Superior, loading iron ore in Superior. To increase capacity, it was lengthened in 1958 to the present length of 698 feet. From 1952 to 1979, Sparrows Point serviced Bethlehem's steel mills on lakes Michigan and Erie, carrying taconite from Lake Superior ports and, occasionally, from Quebec and Ontario via the St. Lawrence Seaway and Welland Canal. The vessel also carried some stone. Sparrows Point had a taconite red hull and white houses. Stack designs changed over the years, but yellow and black colors were used.

During winter layup 1979-80, Bethlehem had Sparrows Point converted to a self-unloader at Superior's Fraser Shipyard. The conveyor-belted boom of a self-unloader increases cargo flexibility and ports served, since shoreside unloading equipment is not needed.

During the 1980s, Great Lakes shippers faced a downturn in the economy along with record imports of foreign steel. Taconite shipments plummeted, but Bethlehem kept Sparrows Point in service carrying mainly stone. The self-unloader helped in that trade.

By 1990, Bethlehem's fleet consisted of three 1,000-foot vessels and Sparrows Point. That season, Bethlehem put Sparrows Point up for sale to help downsize the fleet. Oglebay Norton's Columbia Transportation Division purchased Sparrows Point, repainting and renaming it before the 1991 season. Sparrows Point became Buckeye and had a brick-red hull and off-white houses. Columbia's "star with a C" graced the stack.

In 1994, Oglebay Norton phased out Columbia Transportation Division and changed the appearance of its vessels. Colors remained the same, but under the vessel name on the bow, "Oglebay Norton Company" was added. Columbia's "Star and C" were removed from the stack. In 1995, Oglebay Norton added a new design with what Ogelbay Norton refers to as its offset compass trademark on their stacks.

Since the purchase by Oglebay Norton, Buckeye has been a regular visitor to Lake Superior ports loading taconite. Occasionally, it will carry limestone into the Twin Ports and other lower lakes ports. During the 1995 season, Buckeye handled 56 cargoes. 43 were taconite, 11 stone and two were ore tailings. The most common trip was Silver Bay to Toledo, Ohio, with taconite. The average trip carried 22,000 tons of ore or 19,000 tons of stone. Altogether, Buckeye moved 1,171,508 total tons.

From the ocean to the lakes, Buckeye continues to play an important role in the transportation of raw materials on the Great Lakes.