The SOO - A Tale of Two Cities

"The Soo" is the nickname for two cities having the same name but residing in two different countries, Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan and Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario. The sister cities are separated by the St. Marys river which connects the Great Lakes Superior and Huron. The Michigan version is actually the oldest city in Michigan and was established 1n 1668 by Pere Marquette (Father James Marquette), a Jesuit priest that had come to convert the Indians. In 1668 there were two buildings in Sault Sainte Marie, a church and a residence. Today there are about 75,000 people on the Canadian side and about 20,000 on the Michigan side. Sault is an archaic french word that means falls so Sault Sainte Marie literally means the Falls of Saint Mary.

Lake Superior is about 21 feet higher than Lake Huron and the St. Marys river cascades over rapids at Sault Sainte Marie. The St. Marys river has been an important waterway for hundreds of years but the rapids here required long portages to be made transporting canoes, goods, and even later, small ships. In 1855, the State of Michigan decided to build locks to enable river traffic to freely pass the rapids. At that time a small fee was charged per pound of goods locked up or down the river. Later the locks were expanded and made larger. As the locks became larger, so did the ships. Today there are four American locks that provide their services to any boat or ship wishing passage and there is no charge, it is courtesy of the US government. The largest lock is about 1300 feet long and 110 feet wide. It gets the heaviest usage and handles about 70% of the traffic on the river. The remainder mostly is handled by the second American lock and locks three and four are currently not being used. Plans are underway to build a new large lock where locks three and four are now. The lock is planned to be under construction in about two years. It will be the same size as lock number one so that new ships will not be built any larger than current designs and there will be a backup lock available at all times for any ships on the river.

There is a set of locks on the Canadian side of the river but these locks are currently closed for repairs and will only be used for tour boats and recreational boats when reopened.

At one time approximately 30 ships per day passed through the locks. As the ships became larger and larger the number of trips has decreased. The largest ships using the Soo Locks are referred to as "Lakers" and there have been fourteen of them built. They are about 1000 feet in length and 105 feet wide. They just fit the largest lock. Actually, the "Lakers" are restricted to the Great Lakes since they are too large to navigate the locks on the Welland Canal that goes around Niagara Falls. The "Salties" are smaller ocean going ships that are in the vicinity of 500 fett in length although they may be taller than the "Lakers". The American Locks are the worlds busiest canal in terms of tonnage passing through.

While we were in Sault Sainte Marie we took a tour boat which took us up to Lake Superior level and then we cruised across the river to a steel plant on the Canadian side. We then locked back down to Lake Huron level and cruised along the waterfront of the Ontario side before returning to the pier. It was a very interesting two hour boat ride!

While we were in Ontario we took the Agawa Canyon train which goes 114 miles north of Sault Sainte Marie along the eastern end of Lake Superior. Agawa Canyon was formed 1.2 billion years ago by a fault along the Canadian Shield. The train goes through some wonderful wild areas and past some beautiful lakes and forests. Many locations in this area are only accessible by train or hiking trails. Some of the lakes do have lodges and cottages on them and are a favorite summer retreat for those that like their solitude. Most of the lakes are easily reached by float plane and we heard tales of long ago and 30 pound plus lake trout being caught. Fishing is still good and we would have loved to have spent some time on the shores of one of those beautiful lakes. Agawa Canyon at the end of our ride (not the end of the line) was a beautiful place with steep bluffs on either side of the river and beautiful vistas. We hiked to a couple of waterfalls that were close by and thoroughly enjoyed our time in the mountains. All too soon we were back in Sault Sainte Marie, right on schedule I might add.