This is facing east and that is Canada in the left background. The locks make this portion of the St. Mary's river navigable. The St Mary's river makes a 24 foot drop at this point. St Mary's River bridges Lake Superior with Lake Huron. Before the locks were in place, freighters could not use this for transportation. Pre-European contact Indians and the fur traders that navigated throughout the area had to take their canoes out because of the falls . With iron and ore being discovered in western Michigan, someone decided they needed to alter mother nature so shipping would be easier. So the locks were built so that freight could move throughout the Great Lakes. There were some neat pictures in the visitor's center that showed the waterfall and people traveling to this area to shoot the rapids. The first lock was built here by the Northwest company for canoes in 1798. It was 40 foot long. |
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