Soo Locks, Part 2

Next stop on the Soo Locks Boat Tour is the American locks.  In fact, all of the Soo Locks, save for the small Canadian Lock used for recreational and tour boats, are owned by the U.S. and operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.  This started out as a Michigan enterprise, but responsibility was shifted to the Feds in 1881.  The St. Marys River and its locks are crucial to all the states bordering the Great Lakes, and many well beyond that group.

Ships passing at the lower gates of the
original Poe Lock, about 1902.

In a recent post I mentioned Gen. Orlando M. Poe, designer of the New Presque Isle Lighthouse and its sister lights on the Great Lakes.  Poe's greatest engineering achievement was a new lock for the St. Marys Canal.  Completed in 1896, this structure stood beside the original State Lock and came was named for its designer.  At 800 feet in length and 100 feet in width, the Poe Lock was the largest in the world when it opened.  By accommodating more and larger vessels, Poe's lock facilitated development of the American steel industry by ensuring that raw materials could be supplied in quantity.  It benefited many other industries as well, because goods could be quickly moved over great distances.  Poe deserves more recognition than he gets.

The advent of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the resulting increase in ship traffic, made construction of a new lock essential.  In 1968 the original Poe Lock and the aging State (of Michigan) Lock were replaced by a huge super-lock.  Measuring 1,200 feet in length, 110 feet in width, and 32 feet in depth, this new Poe is the only lock which can handle the 1,000-foot lake freighters now being built.

There are four locks.  The Poe, noted above, and the MacArthur, built in 1943 and named for the American general, are heavily used.  The Davis and Sabin Locks (built in 1914 and 1919 respectively, and named for Corps of Engineers worthies) are rarely used, but are slated for replacement with a single super-lock.  The plans have been drawn, but the money has not been appropriated.  No doubt some obscure politician in Washington, D.C., chairing some obscure sub-committee, has decided that this is pork barrel spending of the very worst kind (read, "in someone else's state") and has it permanently bottled up as "the lock to nowhere."

On our tour, the procedure for locking through on the American side was the same as on the Canadian, but much faster.  We pulled into the MacArthur, tied up to the side of the lock, and watched as the upstream doors were closed.  The lock master then pulled the plug and our water level dropped like a bathtub being emptied — 21 feet in about three minutes!  The downstream doors opened, we cast off, and Bide-a-Wee sailed on.

By the way, while in the lock we were so close to downtown Sault Ste. Marie — just across the street and a narrow strip of park — that I could clearly see the Lock View Restaurant where I would have breakfast the next morning!  I was so close I could almost see what the customers were eating!

Adam throws a line to the worker on the lock.
Note the water level as we start locking through.

A few minutes later we were 21 feet lower and ready
to resume our voyage down the St. Marys River.

This eatery was next door to my motel,
and a stone's throw from the MacArthur Lock.

The first thing we saw coming out of the lock was an up-bound freighter, the Thunder Bay.  This is a new Trillium self-unloading freighter, built in China, and delivered earlier this year.  The "X" in the circle near her bow indicates that she is equipped with bow thrusters.  (Remember those scenes in the Star Trek movies? "Helm, take her out... thrusters only.")  These jets at the bow, and on other ships at the stern also, allow the captain to more easily maneuver his vessel in crowded dockside situations.  Things must get a bit tight from time to time.  In the photos below, note the scrapes on the side of the Thunder Bay.

Thunder Bay, upbound in the St. Marys Canal.

I thought a captain was never supposed to get a scratch
on his/her ship's hull.  But maybe that's just in the Navy.

We sailed down the St. Marys River a short ways.  As we went Adam touted some of the sights to be seen at Canadian Soo, such as the Bushplane Museum.  This facility honors the gutsy pilots who for decades have taken their small planes and themselves into harm's way to help put out forest fires and to rescue people in distress in Canada's Outback.  On the American side we passed an RV park located directly on the riverbank.  Contented RVers were sitting in their lawn chairs, sipping beer in the late afternoon sunshine, and watching the passing parade of ships, of which we were part.  For some, at least, life is good.

Just before returning to the Boat Tour dock we passed close by the Cloverland Electrical Co-op's Edison plant.  This facility has been operating since the early 20th century, using water from the St. Marys River to drive generators at its handsome red sandstone building.  The sandstone was excavated during construction of the hydro canal which runs through American Soo and channels water to the power plant.  The electricity generated here is supplied to users at Sault Ste. Marie and across the eastern Upper Peninsula.  Each sandstone block was shaped by hand by the Italian stone masons who built the building.  Note that between the windows these artists in stone put lighthouses!  What could be more emblematic of the Great Lakes coastline?

The Edison Plant, adorned with lighthouses. •••