Ted and I met Barb Metting and Jim Deemer at the entrance to the St. Marys Falls Canal. The first words out of Jim’s mouth, after the introductions, were to me. “Please tell me you have some closed-toed shoes in your car,” he said, looking down at my sandaled feet. My mouth formed a big “O”.
“I don’t!” I said. “Is there a problem?”
“I’m afraid you can’t go into some of the places we’re going today in open-toed shoes,” Jim said.
I glanced across the street and spotted a sign advertising moccasins on sale. I grinned.
“I always wanted a pair of moccasins!”
Before we go inside the gate for our special tour, I think a little history lesson is in order. I’d been hearing about the Soo Locks ever since we started coming to Michigan, but it was the Panama Canal Zone Locks I had studied in my high school history classes. I knew nothing about these locks at the northern edge of the U.S.
The St. Marys River, which we looked across yesterday into Canada, is the only water connection between Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes. A section of the river known as the St. Marys Rapids, where the water falls about 21 feet from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes, creates a natural barrier to any vessel. Long ago, the Ojibway (Chippewa) Indians, who lived in the area, would carry their canoes around the rapids to reach Lake Superior from the St. Marys River.
As European pioneers arrived, creating larger settlements with increased trading, the need for larger boats grew. The pioneers would have to unload the boats, haul the cargo around the rapids in wagons, and then reload alternate boats on the other side. Soon, the need to build a lock became apparent, and the world-famous Soo Locks were built to form a passage around the rapids in the river.
In the late 1700s a Canadian company built a lock on the Canadian side of the river, but it was destroyed in the War of 1812. A private American company built locks on the U.S. side of the river in 1853. These locks were turned over to the State of Michigan in 1855 and were designated the State Locks. Even though the state charged a lockage toll, commerce grew, and the locks became important on a national level.
The locks were transferred to the U.S. government in 1881, giving jurisdiction over the locks to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Whether the smallest passenger craft, or a 1000 foot freighter, the Corps operates the locks toll free to any vessel wishing to pass through the St. Marys Falls Canal.
There are four parallel lock chambers, each running east to west. These are:
- The Davis Lock, named for Colonel Charles E.L.B. Davis, Detroit District Engineer from 1904-1908. It was constructed in 1914 and is 1350′ long.
- The Sabin Lock, named for L.C. Sabin, the only civilian to serve as a Detroit District Engineer (1918-1919). It was constructed in 1919 and is 1350′ long. This lock is now closed.
- The MacArthur Lock, named for General Douglas MacArthur. Constructed in 1943, it is 800 feet long.
- The Poe Lock, named for Colonel Orlando M. Poe, Engineer Officer during the Civil War, and twice assigned as Detroit District Engineer. The Poe Lock was constructed in 1968 and is 1200′ long.
How Does it Work?
At this point Jim asked if we’d like to go down UNDER the locks. I said, “Define UNDER the locks, please.”
Jim explained that there are tunnels under the locks that are used sometimes to go back and forth between different areas and that also house important equipment. He said there were ten flights of stairs down (which equates to ten back up – yes it does), but we were all game to give it a try.
For our last stop, we’d been given permission to go up to the control tower at the top of the Administration Building. To reach it, the four of us squeezed into a tiny elevator and rode to the top of the tower.
We learned that over 11,000 vessels, carrying up to 90 million tons of cargo pass through these locks every year. Most cargo contained in these ships is either iron ore, coal, grain, or stone.
The Poe Lock, the largest of the four locks, was rebuilt in 1968 to accommodate 1000 foot vessels. It took six years to build and is the only lock ever rebuilt over an existing lock between two operating locks.
The Corps has plans to replace the Davis and Sabin Locks with a larger state-of-the-art lock, similar to the Poe Lock, to assist in handling the larger vessels of the Great lakes fleet. The new lock will be the first lock built at the Soo since 1968.
The Hydropower plant, just north of the locks, generates more than 150 million kilowatt hours of electrical power each year to operate the locks. Whatever power is not used at the locks is distributed to homes and businesses in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and surrounding communities.
What can I say? It was an amazing, amazing tour, and one Ted and I will never forget.
P.S. On the last Friday of every June, the public can cross the lock gates and get a better view of how the locks work at the annual Engineers Day Open House.