When you think of the Soo Locks, you think of the shipping passage on the American side of the St. Mary’s River.
But Canada has a lock there too and as chief photojournalist Corey Adkins found out for our first installment of North of the Border, Sault Canada’s canal is very different than America’s.
“The main reason for the Sault Ste. Marie Canal is the St. Marys River Rapids, which are located south of the site here. Boats can’t traverse the rapids. It’s fast shallow water and lots of rapids and boulders,” says interpretation officer Stéphane Comeault.
But there is another reason why Canada needed its own lock.
“There was a lock system on the American side of the river and vessels had to go through the American side in order to access Lake Superior," explains Comeault. "What happened in 1880, there was a vessel called the Chicora which was locking up to Superior and it was heading west to help in the Red River Rebellion. The cargo was military based, because it had militia and that kind of thing, and when it got to the lock system the Americans said they’re not that comfortable letting this vessel lock through due to the nature of the cargo aboard. That’s what prompted the Canadian government to say we should seriously consider building a lock on the Canadian side to avoid this kind of thing in the future.”
The Sault Ste. Marie Canal in Canada was built between 1889 and 1895. You’ll notice the historic buildings on site are a beautiful red color.
“The geology of the bedrock is red sand stone and, rather than wasting or having to move all that sandstone, all the sandstone that was excavated from the canal was used to build the historic building,” says Comeault.
Over its 121 years, the canal has seen its tragedies. In 1909, a ship never slowed down while entering the lock and crashed into the lower gates.
“And therefore, the water was rushing freely through the canal, ripped the lock gates off the wall.”
And in 1987, there was a fracture in the south wall of the canal. The lock shut down for safety reasons. After about 10 years, they decided to rebuild…but smaller.
“The old lock was much, much longer. So the current lock is 77 meters in length. The old lock expanded all the way to the motor houses here,” explains Comeault.
These days, more than 100,000 people walk the canal each year.
Around 55,000 people go through the lock, and so can you.
“A lot of the stuff you’ll see here you will not see anywhere else in the world, because the simple fact that the things built here were specifically built here for this lock, in this context, and so a lot of the machinery was a one-time build and created to operate the canal here,” says Comeault. “You can feel the vibration, you can smell the grease. It’s really an experience to see and hear this machine functioning that was built in 1889-1895, so it’s over 100 years old now and it’s still functioning as well as it was back in the day.”
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