In 1923, Stanley Newton published, “The Story of Sault Ste. Marie and Chippewa County.” This is part nineteen of a continuing series about the history of Sault Ste. Marie and area in its early years. I have left punctuation and grammar intact. – Laurie Davis
A new lock, having been decided on, the first stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies on July 25, 1876. Peter Barbeau presided at this meeting, and the principal address was made by General Godfrey Weitzel, for whom the lock was named afterward. The canal depth was increased to sixteen feet, the chamber of the Weitzel lock was made 515 feet long, and its depth at the miter sills was seventeen feet. The lock was opened to navigation in September 1881, when the steamer City of Cleveland passed through. The new lock and canal improvements cost about one million dollars each. Engineer Alfred Noble had charge of the work.
June 9, 1881, by Act of Congress, title to St. Mary’s Falls Ship Canal passed to the United States, the transfer having been authorized by the Michigan Legislature some years before. The State had charged four cents on every ton of a vessel’s enrolled tonnage, the same to be collected before the boat passed the canal. This was reduced later to three cents per ton. John Spaulding was the last State Superintendent of the canal, and William Chandler the last Collector. The Government takes no tolls and the smaller launch, American or foreign, is locked through with all the courteous consideration accorded the greatest vessel on the lakes.
Gates Operated by Capstans
The gates of the old locks were operated by manual labor applied through capstans. Each lock could be filled or emptied in seven minutes, and each was large enough to admit a tug and a tow of three vessels or “hookers.”
Formerly, the canal was lighted with kerosene lamps. In 1884 these were replaced by electricity and the beautiful park south of the Weitzel lock was graded and adorned with five hundred shade trees. The last home of the Indians between the locks and St. Mary’s River was given up at the same time.
John Spalding was continued as the first Government Superintendent. Under his direction, the spoil banks resulting from the excavation of the canal were removed in a large part in 1887-89 to the shallows north of Fort Brady, where they now form the land known as Brady Field.
The Poe Lock
The Poe Lock, 800 feet long, 100 feet wide, and with 22 feet of water on the sills, was built by the United States in the years 1887-96. General O.M. Poe was the engineer officer in charge of the district from 1883 to 1895, and Mr. E.S. Wheeler was the assistant engineer in local charge of construction work from 1882 to 1887. Hughes Bros. & Bangs were the principal contractors, and their superintendent was Mr. Thos. Carroll, who afterward became assistant superintendent of the canal and who is still a resident of Sault Ste. Marie.
Contrary to local expectations, when the State canal and lock were opened, the village experienced a small boom. This came about no doubt through the comparatively great influx of construction labor. These men gone, the village settled down and grew very slowly until the advent of the Weitzel lock and the time of the arrival of the railroads.
After the building of the first canal, the little town was as much isolated in the winter as ever. The mail still came by overland from Saginaw, five or six times during the winter season, and everybody looked forward to the going out of the ice and the upcoming of the first flotilla of Montreal canoes, bound via Sault Ste. Marie for the great Northwest or the first steamer from Detroit. More than once the village was entirely out of pork, lard, and flour before the spring supplies could get there.
There is an unflattering picture of the Soo of 1850 in Agassiz’s “Lake Superior.”
A Picture of the Soo in 1850
“The Sault de St. Marie,” he says, “is a long straggling village, extending in all some two or three miles, if we reckon from the outposts of scattered log huts. The main part of it is concentrated on a street running from the Fort, which stands on a slight eminence over the river, about a quarter of a mile along the water, with some back lanes leading up the gradual slope, rising perhaps half a mile from the river.
“The population is so floating in its character that it is difficult to estimate; some stated it at about three hundred on average, consisting of half-breed voyageurs, miners waiting for employment, traders, and Indians. The chaplain at the Fort, however, estimated the number of the inhabitants on both sides of the river at one thousand, of whom the majority belong to the American side.
“The most striking feature of the place is the number of dramshops and bowling alleys. Standing in front of the hotels I counted seven buildings where liquor was sold, besides the larger stores, where this was only one article among others. The roar of the bowling alleys and the click of the billiard balls are heard from morning till late at night. The whole aspect is that of a western village on a Fourth of July afternoon. Nobody seems to be at home, but all out on a spree, or going a-fishing or bowling. There are no symptoms of agriculture or manufactures; traders enough, but they are chatting at their doors or walking about from one shop to another. The wide platforms in front of the two large taverns are occupied by leisurely people, with their chairs tilted back and cigars in their mouths. Nobody is busy but the barkeepers and no one seems to know what he is going to do next.
Chief’s Son Carried Home
“Whilst we were here, a number of Indians arrived with the son of a chief from Fort William. After parading about the town with an American flag, speechifying, and offering the pipe at all the grogshops to beg for liquor, they devoted themselves to drinking and playing at bowls. In the evening, when passing one of the bowling alleys, we saw in front of it on a heap of shavings, a dark object which proved to be the Chief’s son, extended at full length and dead drunk, with several Indians endeavoring to get him home. The only sign of life he gave was a feeble muttering in Indian, interspersed with a certain English curse; another instance of the naturalization of John Bull’s imprecation in a foreign tongue. My companions by signs, explained to the Indians that they should take up the drunken man by the legs and arms and carry him home. The idea struck them as a good one, for they immediately ‘how, howed,’ set about it and bore him off, one to each leg and arm.”
Agassiz found fresh fish still very cheap at the Sault. He bought a fifteen-pound trout for a small fish-hook from a half-breed voyageur, who was careful to explain that he was ‘Francais,’ not ‘Sauvege.’
John McDougall Johnston, son of John Johnston and a famous raconteur, has left us the story of an old table still to be seen in this city.
- Weitzel Lock is Opened - January 14, 2025
- The Steamer Independence - January 7, 2025
- Predicts Deep Sea Canal - December 20, 2024
