Upbound Downbound: The Story of the Soo Locks

This book was written and published in 2005, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 1855 opening of the shipping canal and locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. With the opening of the canal, it became possible for sailing vessels and steamships to pass between Lake Superior and the lower lakes--thus making the mineral riches of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and northern Minnesota available to a the growing industrial base of the nation. Michigan had only been a state for sixteen years when it took on the task of designing and building locks that would enable large ships to get past the obstacle posed by the mighty St. Marys River rapids at the Sault. This book tells the story of that first lock job, and some of the people who helped make it a success. The growth in shipping occurred rapidly, making it necessary to add a second lock in 1881. By 1896, the original lock was replaced by a much larger one, called the Poe Lock. By 1920, two more locks, the Davis and Sabin Locks, had been added to deal with the ever increasing number of vessels carrying cargo "downbound" from Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes--and, of course, "upbound" cargo to Lake Superior ports. In 1968, a new Poe Lock was opened; it is the only lock capable of handling the thirteen enormous 1,000-foot-long carriers that can carry sixty thousand tons of iron ore in one passage. Plans are underway to add a second Poe-sized lock to make this critical piece of infrastructure less vulnerable to shutdowns that would have immediate consequences to the nation's industrial production. The book has over 70 images depicting 150 years of activity at the mighty "Soo Locks."