The Soo Locks

Our last stop before entering Canada was Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Sault (pronounced like Sue) is the French word for the rapids on the Saint Mary's River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. The Saint Mary's River drops over 20 feet through the rapids and presented a considerable obstacle to commerce between the lakes, until canals with locks were built starting in the 1850s. The concept of the canal lock intrigued Barbara, so we took one of the excursion boats that takes you through the locks both upstream and downstream. With a little luck, you can also observe one of the big freighters that use the locks going upstream and downstream. The visitor center posts the expected arrival times of ships over the next few hours, and gives their names and lengths. The largest ships that the locks can handle is about 1,000 ft. (over 3 football fields long!).




Here is Barbara waiting to board our excursion boat. These boats sail fairly frequently during the summer months.







Here we are sailing into the lock with the downstream gates open. The water level in the lock is at the level of the river below the rapids.








Here is another excursion boat that was in the lock. The lock has nearly filled to the level of the river above the locks.







Here we are on our excursion boat, the lock has filled, and the upstream gates have started to open.








Here is the Presque Isle, one of the 1,000 foot freighters we happed to pass while on the excursion boat.






Canal locks date back a long way in navigation history. They were apparently used in the 900s in China. The first known modern style of lock (pound lock) was built in the Netherlands in 1373. The first of the Soo locks was built in 1855. There are currently four locks on the American side of the Saint Mary's River and one on the Canadian side. Two of the American locks are not used because of damage. There are plans to use the location of these two closed locks to build a "super lock" that could handle much larger ships.