SAULT SAINTE MARIE CANALS 



SAULT SAINTE MARIE CANALS 



pital, the city armory, Fort Brady and the 

 United States Government Park (150 acres) 

 along the river. 'The Soo" is a favorite sum- 

 mer resort, since the summers are delightfully 

 cool. Electrical energy, obtained from the 

 river, is used to operate large paper and lum- 

 ber mills, one of the largest carbide plants in 

 the United States, flour and woolen mills, a 

 leather factory with an annual output worth 

 $300,000, and dredging-machinery works. The 

 city also has important fish-packing interests. 



Could the history of the Indians of the North 

 be written, the site of Sault Sainte Marie would 

 doubtless have an important place in that rec- 

 ord. It was visited by the French missionaries 

 Rambault and Jogues in 1541, and in 1662 Pere 

 Marquette established there the first perma- 

 nent settlement within the present limits of 

 Michigan. At the great congress of Indian 

 nations assembled there in 1671, the French, by 

 proclamation, assumed possession of the terri- 

 tory between that point and the Gulf of 

 Mexico and westward to the Pacific Ocean. 

 The town was incorporated in 1879 and became 

 a city in 1887. C.E.C. 



SAULT SAINTE MARIE CANALS, popu- 

 larly called the Soo CANALS, two artificial water- 

 ways, one in Michigan and one in Ontario, by 

 which vessels pass betw r een lakes Superior and 

 Huron. The construction of the canals was 



SAULT SAIXTE MARIE CANALS 



(1) American canal and locks; (2) Canadian 

 canal and locks; (3) power canal; (4) Sault Ste. 

 Marie, Michigan ; (5) Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. 



made necessary by the rapids of the Saint 

 Mary's River, which forms the natural connec- 

 tion between the two lakes. These canals carry 

 more tonnage each year than the Suez, Man- 

 chester, Kiel or Kaiser Wilhelm and New York 

 State Barge canals combined. In 1916 the 

 number of ships passed through the locks was 

 25,407, bearing a total of 54,922 passengers and 

 91,999,219 tons. The previous high record in 

 tonnage, 79,718,000, was carried in 1913. Iron 



ore comprises eighty per cent of the east-bound 

 freight, and coal ninety per cent of the west- 

 bound. 



The Canadian Canal. The early trappers had 

 to carry their canoes and furs around the rap- 

 ids, but in 1798 the Northwest Fur Company 

 completed a canal through which canoes and 

 bateaux could ascend the river. This canal 

 had a single lock, which was thirty-eight feet 

 long and eight feet nine inches wide and had a 

 lift of nine feet. It was destroyed by Ameri- 

 can soldiers in 1814. The present Canadian 

 canal was begun in 1888, and was completed in 

 1895 at a total cost of $4,994,373. The Cana- 

 dian canal is 7,067 feet, or one and one-third 

 miles long between the ends of the entrance 

 piers, 150 feet wide at the surface and twenty- 

 three feet deep. The lock is 900 feet long by 

 sixty feet wide, and has a lift of eighteen feet. 

 The canal is cut through Saint Mary's Island, 

 on the north side of Saint Mary's River. The 

 tonnage of freight carried through the Cana- 

 dian Canal averages 30,000,000 a year; the 

 record tonnage, 42,699,394, was carried in 1913. 



The American Canal. On the United States 

 side there was at first a tramway for the con- 

 veyance of freight and passengers around the 

 rapids. The first canal was completed in 1855 

 by the state of Michigan, which retained the 

 ownership until 1881, when it was transferred to 

 the United States government. This canal had 

 two masonry locks, each 350 feet long and with 

 a lift of nine feet. These locks were destroyed 

 in 1888 by the excavation for the Poe lock. 



The oldest of the present locks is the Weitzel 

 lock, completed in 1881 under the direction of 

 General Godfrey Weitzel (1835-1884). The 

 Weitzel lock is 515 feet long and has seventeen 

 feet of water on the sills. The Poe lock, just 

 north of the Weitzel lock, was completed in 

 18C6 and was named for General Orlando M. 

 Poe (1832-1895), the army engineer in charge 

 of construction. This lock is 800 feet long, 

 and has twenty-two feet of water on the sills. 

 The Weitzel Lock cost $1,000,000 and the Poe 

 Lock cost $3,000,000. While the Poe Lock was 

 under construction the Canadian government 

 completed the canal described above. For 

 many years the Canadian canal, being slightly 

 deeper, was used by the barge vessels, although 

 the total tonnage of freight was divided fairly 

 evenly between the two canals. 



In 1909 the United States government began 

 the widening of the old canal channel from 108 

 to 230 feet and the construction of the Davis 

 Lock, or Lock No. 3. During 1914 a new canal 



