I couldn’t resist researching my own question on Tom’s Bob Barker Post which mentioned that Barker trained on an aircraft carrier on the Great Lakes.

How did an aircraft carrier get to the Great Lakes?

It turns out there were 2 aircraft carriers on the Great Lakes, the USS Sable (IX-81) and the USS Wolverine (IX-64). This guy has a whole blog dedicated to the topic.

They were originally coal burning paddle steamers, meaning they had big paddle wheels – think riverboats. They were retrofitted with flight decks and were used to qualify pilots to land on aircraft carriers during WWII. They were also used to train the guys who direct the planes on the deck (the Landing Signal Officers).

The ships did not have all of the features of an aircraft carrier (such as elevators or a hangar deck) but they provided a close enough experience to allow them to be used for training.

In addition to Bob Barker, President George H.W. Bush trained on a Great Lakes carrier.

The ships were decommissioned shortly after the war.

Source: wiki (Wolverine & Sable) and the blog I linked above.