August 30 - September 4, 2017:
It’s a rainy, cloudy day as we start our journey to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan on routes 123, 28 and interstate 75. It never rains hard, just enough to have to keep the wipers on and keep messing with them. We are going through the Hiawatha National Forest for a good portion of the ride and there are signs for several campgrounds. Twinkles is driving ahead today and stops at the Soo Locks Campground, our first choice, only to find we could only get a site for two night, it’s all reserved for the weekend.
As a result we went to our backup plan, the Kewadin Casino, only a couple of miles away which we were able to get through the holiday weekend. It’s actually a better deal with electric hookup and dump station with potable water, shower room, free laundry machines, roomy, level grass sites and the use of the hotel pool and fitness room. The Kewadin Casino is huge with several conference rooms, a hotel, several gaming rooms, restaurants and a theater.
The central hallways are covered with indian artworks, crafts and cultural information, very nicely done.
This area had been settles by native Americans more that 12,000 years ago and was a crossroads of fishing and trading tribes around the Great Lakes. The first documented attempt at European settlement was in 1668 by Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette who started a Mission. French traders then started a fur trading post and it became the center of a 3,000 mile fur trading route extending from Montreal to the country north of Lake Superior. The French claimed this land and all land surrounding Lake Superior in 1671. It went from French to English rule in 1763 with the treaty of Paris, followed by the United States in 1817 after the war of 1812.
The big attraction here and what has essentially been its reason for being is it’s location on the St. Mary’s River between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Lake Heron and Lake Superior are connected by a 74 mile long St. Marys River. At Sault Ste. Marie in a two mile length the river drops 21 feet causing a long series of rapids. In the early days boats had to be portaged (carried) overland around these rapids. As boat sizes increased this became impractical and a lock was built in 1855 to eliminate the need to portage. These locks have been expanded and new ones have been constructed over time as the Great Lakes shipping fleet and ships have grown larger. The locks at Sault Ste. Marie are the one of the busiest in the world.
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| Sault Ste. Marie welcome sign |
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| The Edmund Fitzgerald is everywhere here |
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| The Soo Theater is slated for restoration |
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| A nice monument to a woman who gave much to the city |
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| There are several of these beefy looking steel bridges in town |
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They like to call liquor stores "Party Stores" here. I
kind of wonder if they should promote drinking and racing |
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| The Chippewa County Courthouse is a beauty |
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| Nice mural on a downtown building |
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| The Valley Camp freighter is now a museum |
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| Downtown tourist shops are abundant, maybe too abundant |
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| If I had to stay in a motel, I would stay at the Long Ships Motel |
The true historical area is along Portage Ave and the site of Fort Brady and the Ancient Anishinaabek Indian burial grounds. This area along the Saint Marys River has been the site of much Indian, French, English and American drama and history.
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| The site of the Indian burial grounds is now preserved |
I have neglected to mention how this area of the Lake Superior coast figures into Longfellow’s Hiawatha novel which Michigan uses extensively to promote this area. One of the early influential settlers of Sault Set. Marie was Henry Rowe Schoolcraft who was a sort of renaissance man who became the indian Agent. He was wrote the "Myth of Hiawatha" which influenced Longfellows "The Song of Hiawatha".
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Schoolcraft was a dashing young man who studied the Chippewa
customs and language and developed a Chippewa dictionary |
We then continue on Portage Ave to the Locks Park and the US Corps of Engineers Soo Locks Visitors Center. Inside they have all the history on the Saint Marys River, of the original rapids requiring boats to portage around, the building of the original locks and the subsequent upgrades and expansion over the years. They explain the reason for the locks, how they operate and provide statistics on the number of ships and tonnage of cargo through the locks each year. Best of all there is a raised observation deck where you can watch ships enter the locks, at close range, be raised, and then exit.
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That's amazing but all the water comes from the lake, fills the lock
by gravity (no pumps) and then empties back into the lake
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| One of the busiest locks in the world ! |
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| And they don't change the boats for passage ? |
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| Tour boat in the lock |
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Freighter, they call them "Lakers" here and refer to the Ocean
going ships as "Salties"
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| Close up of the ship passing |
We return to the Casino for the $4.95 all you can eat salad bar, soup and desert Thursday lunch special. As expected it was mostly seniors and I had to note that it takes seniors a long time to fill a plate at a salad bar, especially when you fill it heaping full. It was all good and we ate way more than needed, the salad was just OK, but the soups and deserts were really good !
We do the Soo Locks harbor cruise on a beautiful sunny day and I think we lucked out as we saw several big ships during our tour. We left going upstream through the lock on the US side and returned through the locks on the Canadian side. It was a 2 hour narrated cruise and filled with good sights.
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| Our cruise boat |
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| Heading into the Locks |
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| A freighter coming in behind us |
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| Another freighter coming out of the locks from other direction |
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| Another cruise boat coming through, it was getting congested |
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| Inside the Lock |
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We have been raised 21 feet to the level of Lake Superior
and are ready to leave the locks
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| About to go under the International Bridge |
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| An ore boat going into the power plant |
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Coming into the Canadian lock to be lowered to the St. Mary's
River level |
A priority this week was to get new rear tires on the Jeep which is not always easy, it a weird size that most tire shops don’t have in stock. This shop didn’t have the tire in stock either, so they tried to match up another more aggressive tread tire, but nothing was a close match. They finally gave up on that, I wasn’t much interested anyhow as it would cost more. I ended up special ordering the original tires which came and were installed the next day.
I searched for some musical entertainment in this town but came up empty, very sad for a college town. I think you have to go to Canada if you want that ?
However at the casino at 10 AM Saturday morning there was a group of country musicians playing just off the main hallway, for themselves it seems as no one was watching them. I heard them from the hotel lobby as I was using the WiFi, one of the perks of staying here, along with free coffee and soft drinks.
There are several museums and historical attractions here but I’ve sort of been waiting for a cloudy or rainy day. I broke down and went to the “River Museum” which sort of chronicles everything that’s happened along the St. Mary’s River from about a million years ago to the the present. It went from the creation of the Great Lakes, the earliest inhabinants, the European explorers, the European conquest by the French, the English and the US, the fur trade, the building of the locks, the military presence, the establishment of Saint Ste. Marie, the timber industry, the railroad, the expansion of the locks, the sport of Hockey, the start of the University of the Great Lakes and tourism. As usual lots of good amazing stories.
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| The River Museum at the Chippewa Indians Interpretive Center |
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Painting of early fur trade days on the St. Marys River
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A painting made for the Michigan exhibit at the
1893 World"s Columbian Exposition
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Directly across the St. Marys River is the Canadian city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The original city of Sault Ste. Marie was on both sides of the river but when the boundary of the US and Canada was established as the river, the cities were divided. The International Bridge across the St. Marys River is a very impressive high steel arch bridge, a scenic attraction of its own. We exited just after the bridge, parked and walked to the Canadian locks which are today only used by the harbor tour boats and private fishing vessels. You are then able to walk across the lock gates across South St. Marys Island to Whitefish Island. Whitefish Island is the territory of the Batchewana First Nation, returned to them in 1998. There are several trails to the remaining rapids of the St. Marys River. The rapids remain fast and turbulent and there were several people fishing which I expect were tribal members. We saw several beaver Dams and lodges in the marshland.
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The rapids developed here as the river could not erode through the hard
layer of Jacobsville Sandstone, the locks had to be cut through
that layer of sandstone
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The indians came here for centuries to fish for the Whitefish that
were very abundant here. They fished using a hand held net while
standing in their canoe in the rapids.
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