The following story was taken from a booklet by members of The Soo Fire Department in 1921. With the building of the current Soo lock, this makes for an interesting read comparing it to the Soo, 103 years ago. Enjoy! – Laurie Davis
“See America First” is one of the slogans that began to make its impression on the public mind just around the outbreak of the war. The World War practically eliminated European travel and thousands of people who had been going abroad began to become familiar with the tourist wonders of America, and it is safe to say that many of those thousands will never take their vacations abroad in the future. America is so vast that a lifetime is too short to know intimately all the delightful vacation grounds available for a summer or winter outing. It is only necessary for these places to offer the proper climate advantages and opportunities for enjoyment to make themselves known to the number of people who are now interested in the resorts of this country.
Sault Ste. Marie is one of the most attractive summer resorts in America. It is interesting because of its early settlement and is the center of the automobile road system of the north. It offers the tourist a wide variety of interesting side trips and the great Soo Locks.
Primarily every traveler in America associates in his mind, the Soo with the famous Government Locks, the largest in the world and which together with the St. Mary’s River, form the greatest waterway on the globe. Statistics are tiresome, but an idea of the immensity of this waterway can only be realized comparatively, and a few figures are essential for its conception. The commerce to and from Lake Superior during the navigation season of eight months in 1920, amounted to 79,282,496 net tons, which is more than three times the traffic through the Suez Canal or more than six times the traffic of the Panama Canal for the entire year.
Lake Steamers are built expressly for this service, the newer one being over 600 feet and carrying more than 15,000 tons each. The wonder of this great commerce can be realized by the statement that in the year stated, the average number of vessels passing the locks was seventy-five a day or one passage every nineteen minutes.
The government maintains a magnificent park surrounding the locks and extending along the river shore for about a mile. It is a delight which the stranger never tires, to sit on one of the comfortable benches in the shade of the tree and watch this constantly passing panorama of boats. The four locks and the dredged channels leading to them through the St. Mary’s River, represent a total investment by the Government of some $25,000,00, making it one of the largest government enterprises in this country, No tolls are charged, their operation at an annual cost of over $160,000 accruing to the benefit of every citizen in this country in cheap freights. The importance of the Soo Locks was recognized during the war when they were so constantly guarded by a regiment of regulars, as the most important artery in the United States.
Sault Ste. Marie is historically one of the most interesting places in America. The first white man, Etienne Brule, visiting this spot about 1620, found an Indian village of some 2000 souls, which had evidently been in existence for untold centuries. During the latter part of the 17th century, Sault Ste. Marie became one of the most widely known settlements on the continent, as the last outpost of civilization for the fur traders and missionaries in their exploration of the vast Northwest. The village called by the Indians “Bawating,” was later known by the French as “Sault de Gaston,” changed later to “Le Sault de Sainte Marie, and finally by the popular Americanized title “The Soo.”
Its history has been under three flags, French, English, and American. It has always been a garrisoned town beginning with the building of a French fort in 1750 by the Marquis De la Jonquiere, Governor General of New France. After the close of the French and Indian War Lieutenant Janette garrisoned the post with British soldiers, and in July 1822 it was finally occupied by a battalion of the United States Infantry under General Hugh Brady. The present site of Fort Brady is on the hills back of the city, but the original post on the riverfront was occupied until 1893. Many landmarks of early settlement are still in existence. While the site of the old fort is now occupied by the Federal Building, and the old site of the Indian village by the Government locks, an atmosphere of romance lingers to invite the imagination of visitors.
Sault Ste. Marie is one of the oldest summer resorts in the United States, its climate advantages having been recognized by the Indians centuries before the white man settled on the shores of the Atlantic. Almost entirely surrounded by the largest bodies of fresh water in the world, constantly fanned by the forest-scented breezes of Lake Superior, its cool bright summer weather is a lifesaver to the tired city worker. Outside of its natural advantages, its popularity as a summer resort can be mostly attributed to the great variety of enjoyable short trips tributary by steamer, rail, and car. A bi-weekly service offers a three-day outing along the north shore of Lake Superior, touching the small fishing and Indian settlements as far as Michipicoten Island and returning. The thirty thousand Islands of Georgian Bay are a matter of a few days’ trip on one of the palatial lake steamers. The Algoma Central Railway running north towards Hudson Bay gives access to the virgin forested country of the north and some of the most magnificent scenery on the continent. Stone surfaced highways offer a wide choice of a day outing to Les Cheneaux Islands, Albany Island, Detour, Mackinac Island, and the resorts of Lake Huron to Spectacle Lake, St. Ignace, and on the Canadian side Goulais Bay, Crystal Falls, and Desbarats. These drives through the north country are beyond scenic comparison with those in any other part of the country.
The blue waters of the St. Mary’s River with its beautiful wooded shores and numerous islands form an inland waterway over one hundred miles in length, into which flow streams by means of which the canoe traveler may journey over the old voyageurs’ routes to Hudson Bay or as far into the interior as the spirit moves him. Truly the land of the “Sky Blue Water,” a land of mighty rivers, countless lakes and streams, and outdoor playground of scenic loveliness. Excellent trout, muskalonge, and bass fishing are within a few hour’s travel of the city, and in the fall the duck shooting and deer hunting on the American side and the moose hunting in Canada is as good if not superior to that in any other section of America.
Sault Ste. Marie is the northern terminus of the Dixie Highway, stretching south to Miami, Florida, and the Great Northern Highway from Toronto, paralleling the picturesque shores of Georgian Bay. It is on the scenic route of the Roosevelt Highway and is the connecting link between Sault Ste. Marie and Port Arthur on the King’s Highway. These great transcontinental roads make the Sault the most important road terminal of the north and give the traveler a wide choice of return trips. It is not necessary for him to turn around and go back over the same road, his return can be made through an entirely different part of the country. These trunk line highways also give easy access by car from all parts of the country. They are mostly stone-surfaced and in every case travelable under all weather conditions.
Sault Ste. Marie is about equally distant (some four hundred miles) from the cities of Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Toronto, and is reached by rail in a night’s ride. Every passenger steamship line of importance on the Great Lakes, either touches at Sault Ste. Marie, or has connecting lines to that point. Frequent sailing from Buffalo and Chicago starts the city dweller on his vacation, and this most attractive lake trip avoids the discomforts of a rail journey in the dust and heat of the summer.
The tourist of today has a right to expect plain statements of facts, with respect to the advantages of his objectives for an outing, and relies on the accuracy of such information. With a conscientious belief in the justice of maintaining such expressions, it can be truthfully asserted that the tourist or summer resorter takes no chances on Sault Ste. Marie. There are few places in America, as attractive, interesting, and enjoyable from the standpoint of health, pleasure, and entertainment.
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Very interesting article considering it is from 1921. Thanks for sharing.