Freighters and boats were again portaged around the rapids. Congress passed an act in granting , acres of public land to the State of Michigan as compensation to the company that would build a lock permitting waterborne commerce between Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes. The Fairbanks Scale Company, which had extensive mining interests, in the upper peninsula, undertook this challenging construction project in The State Lock was the first chamber built-in Thanks to the State Lock the foot difference in water levels was tamed, and easy transport between the two Great Lakes became possible.
The Federal Government took control of the property and the lock system in the s. Boats that passed through the State Lock were required to pay a toll of four cents per ton until when the toll was reduced to three cents. The Fairbanks Scale Company, which had extensive mining interests in the upper peninsula, undertook this challenging construction project in Building the locks in the 's was a major engineering project, since large amounts of solid rock had to be moved.
The images below show part of the construction of the locks, and an early view of the locks. In spite of adverse conditions, Fairbanks completed a system of two locks, in tandem, each feet long, within the 2 year deadline set by the State of Michigan. On May 31, , the locks were turned over to the state and designated as the State Lock.
An important date: JUNE 22, The passage of the steamer Illinois through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie marks the opening of unobstructed shipping between Lakes Superior and Huron. Ships are no longer forced to stop at Sault Ste. Marie and portage their cargoes around the rapids of the St. The canal is the result of a long-sought grant by Congress to Michigan of , acres of public land.
Construction, begun in mid, has progressed despite cost overruns, food shortages, a hostile climate and a cholera epidemic. The mile-long canal and two foot locks arranged in tandem have been completed in two years. The Sault locks provide new impetus to Michigan's fledgling mining industry. Copper mining on the Keweenaw Peninsula began in the early s, and Michigan led the nation in copper production for many years.
In surveyor William A. Burt discovered iron ore deposits near Negaunee. Iron ore mining expanded gradually, but by the late nineteenth century Michigan produced more iron ore than any other state. Michigan also produced significant amounts of salt , gypsum , oil and natural gas. Boats which passed through the State Lock picture below were required to pay a toll of four cents per ton, until , when the toll was reduced to three cents.
Within a few years, commerce through the canal had grown to national importance, and the need for new locks became clear. The Corps has operated the locks, toll free, since that time.
The opening of the canal, named the Michigan State Locks, but eventually called simply the Soo Locks, perfectly coincided with the increased demand for iron as railroads expanded westward. Between and , the railroad network in the United States nearly quadrupled in size. The new locks expedited the shipment of much-needed iron ore to steel mills in the southern Great Lakes. In return, investment capital flowed north to the Lake Superior region, expanding mining operations and improving transportation arteries.
Source: Unknown The first load of iron ore through the Soo Locks amounted to tons in August This four-and-a-half-hour cruise passes both up bound and down bound through the Soo Locks and allows for even more opportunities for close-up views of freighters.
After 60 years of operating in a joint venture with American-Canadian Lock Tours formerly known as dock 1 , Famous Soo Locks Boat Tours formerly known as dock 2 is now operating independently.
Operating since , Famous Soo Locks Boat Tours offers a variety of cruises aboard its iconic yellow and blue tour boats. Located in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan next to the historic Valley Camp Museum Ship, Famous makes a visit to the Upper Peninsula memorable with educational and relaxing maritime adventures. Media Contact: Allie Brawley, The first ship passed through the new Poe Lock in the fall of Just a few months earlier, the foot Edmund Fitzgerald had locked downbound through the MacArthur with 30, tons of taconite pellets, breaking an all-time tonnage record for a single ship through the locks.
The new Poe Lock, designed for the class of 1,foot supercarriers, was formally dedicated in June Cort , locked through the Poe carrying 51, tons of taconite and a new record.
Since then, single loads in excess of 70, tons have been handled. Depth of water in the channels is critical — an additional inch of draft translates into an extra tons of payload on supercarriers. The Soo Locks attract more than maritime traffic. Until about , visitors could combine sightseeing at the locks with shooting the rapids in a canoe piloted by a descendant of the Saulteurs, as the early French Jesuits called the Ojibway people who lived by the rapids.
In recent years, traffic counts at Soo Locks Visitors Center show an average of about , visitors each season, with another , getting a personal look at the lock operation as passengers on local tour boats and other vessels.
Whether waiting for water to bring them up or let them down, boats and ships that use the locks will pass under the International Bridge linking the two Sault Ste. The effects of the Sault Locks on economic growth in northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota can be seen in tonnage figures at the Sault. The year was the first to see 1 million tons pass through the locks; in the 10 million ton figure was surpassed, and more than million tons went through the locks for the first time in The economic effects of the locks on the Sault itself have not been as dramatic as one might think.
The Sault is not a port where freight is handled — when the State Locks opened in , it made obsolete the jobs of all the portagers, men involved in unloading freight at one end of the rapids, carting it overland and reloading on a different ship at the other end.
Some of those men undoubtedly found employment at the locks, and the construction jobs as new locks were built provided temporary boosts in employment. But regular full-time employment non-construction jobs at the locks has dropped from more than jobs in the early s to about at present, due in part to technology changes. Although it was not caused by the locks, the population of Sault Ste.
Marie did grow dramatically in the last two decades of the 19th century, spurred in part by arrival of railroad service in and even more by construction of a waterpower canal. Union Carbide built a manufacturing plant in the early s to use the electric power. The plant had more than employees at its peak and was a mainstay of industry at the Sault.
Not surprisingly, the population of the Soo, which had continued growing slowly but steadily to a peak of about 19, in the late s, fell to about 14, in The census in gives a population of 14, for the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, showing no growth at all in the last two decades of the 20th century.
The air base closed in It has been more than 50 years since construction began on the second, most recent, Poe Lock. Construction might on the near horizon, however. Congress has approved, in concept, another lock — with the same physical dimensions as the current Poe Lock — capable of handling 1,foot carriers. No money for construction has yet been authorized.
Whatever the outcome of that lock, it seems safe to predict that folks in the Sault in will be celebrating a bicentennial of the St. Marys Falls Shipping Canal. Marys rapids have supplied power since Avoiding the power of the St.
Marys River and falls was the goal of the original lock system. But even before , harnessing that water power was the dream of more than one entrepreneur. This project failed for lack of sufficient capital, but across the river in Canada, Francis Clergue led the development of a hydroelectric plant, completed in He then found backers to resuscitate the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, project, which culminated with the opening of the Michigan Lake Superior Power Company facility in — a powerhouse a quarter-mile long, at the end of a 2-mile-long canal, which still operates today as a megawatt facility owned by Edison Sault Electric Company.
Together with a megawatt plant in Sault, Ontario, and a megawatt U. Army Corps of Engineers plant in the rapids on the Michigan side, clean hydropower here provides energy that would otherwise require the burning of about , tons of coal annually to produce. Only about 4 percent of the St. Marys River natural flow passes through the once mighty rapids now — 95 percent passes through the three power canals and the remaining 1 percent operates the locks.
Marie's Heritage and Sugar Island Sampler. November 13, Nov 13, AM - PM. Marquette Regional History Center. Apr 26, - Jan 8, November 14,
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