A side trip to Petoskey Michigan - and exploring Sault Ste. Marie

I'm staying with longtime friends of my parents (my 'Aunt' and 'Uncle') in Sault Ste. Marie and they needed to go to Petoskey, MI, so I went along for the trip.  Petoskey is a town and coastal resort community with a population of just under 6000.  It was a very lovely little place - somewhere I know I could spend more time.

About to drive onto the Mackinac Bridge (with more on this bridge at the end of this post)

Driving over the bridge, looking out towards Lake Michigan 

Mackinac Island

The giant hotdog (60 feet long) in Mackinaw City

The International Bridge, from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Another great thing about visiting Petoskey was that it gave me the opportunity to put my feet in Lake Michigan on this trip as well.  That's three Great Lakes and Georgian Bay - not bad.

Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River, close to the Canada-US border.  To the south, across the river, is the United States and the city of  Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.  These two communities were one city until a new treaty after the War of 1812 established the border between Canada and the United States in this area at the St. Marys River.  Nowadays the two cities are joined by the International Bridge.  Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the St. Marys Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.

The Soo Locks - taken as we were driving over the International Bridge

The Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre is the only museum dedicated to preserving the history of bush flying and forest protection in Canada.  It was founded in 1987 by a group of local volunteers to preserve the province's history in bush planes and aerial fire fighting.  The museum's focus is on floatplanes, bush planes, waterbombers, and forest fire fighting equipment along with other aviation and forestry-related artifacts.

Fokker F.VIIb-3m Tri-motor

DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver (and this particular one is the oldest still flying Beaver in the world)

Noorduyn Norseman - designed in 1935, the Norseman was the first plane designed and built for Canadian bush flying

Canadair CL-215 - the first purpose-built water bomber.  It is capable of picking up 5,455 litres of water at a time and dropping it on a fire

Looking out over the museum's hanger

Silver Dart - a replica of the first aircraft to make a powered flight in Canada

This is the oldest stone building northwest of Toronto.  The house was built by Charles Oakes Ermatinger in 1814, as his home and place of business.  He, his Ojibway wife and their 13 children resided there until 1828.  The site has served as a court house, hotel, YWCA and social club.
The Ermatinger Old Stone House has been fully restored to depict the domestic and professional life of Charles Oakes Ermatinger, as well as other respected residents who lived there.

The Clergue Blockhouse is one of Sault Ste. Marie's most significant buildings.  The lower stone story of the Blockhouse dates back to 1819, making it the second oldest stone building northwest of Toronto.  The ground floor was once part of a fur trade post built by the North West Company.  After the company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company the buildings of the post fell into disuse until 1894, when Francis Hector Clergue purchased the land and all its holdings.  Clergue liked the location of this property given its close proximity to his pulp and paper mill.  A cantilevered log second floor with a hip roof was added, and Clergue used this as his office and living space and it continued to be used as a residence until 1974.

Built by Clergue and standing for more than 120 years now are some impressive sandstone buildings from the city's industrial past, originally part of the Sault Ste. Marie Pulp and Sulphite Company.  The sandstone for these buildings was excavated from the canal.  These buildings are now being transformed into a community hub with businesses, restaurants, etc..  The former administration office building is now the new home of the Algoma Conservatory of Music, Ontario's largest music conservatory outside of Toronto.

The Algoma Conservatory of Music building

The original mill shop building

The St. Marys River is the water link between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  The river is 96.5 kms long between the two Great Lakes and it is at Sault Ste. Marie where the turbulent rapids of the river create a 6.4 metre change in elevation between the lakes.  

Construction on the canal began in 1889 and was completed with passage of the first vessel in 1895.  In 1987, due to a structural failure on a portion of the lock wall, the canal was closed to navigation however in 1995 a new, smaller lock was constructed within the existing lock system to accommodate recreational boaters and tour boats and this recreational lock is still in use today on the Canadian side, with the large freighter ships going through the Soo Locks on the American side.
Today the Sault Ste. Marie Canal is a National Historic Site with most of the buildings from when the canal was first built still on the site.

The Canalman's Shelter, built between 1904 and 1906 to accommodate the operations crew of the canal

The Administration Building - completed in 1895 and housed the administrative functions of the canal

The Superintendent's Residence - built in 1897 to provide on-site accommodations for the Superintendent and his family.  The residence was occupied by the Superintendent until 1980

The entrance way into the Sault Ste. Marie Canal

Opening the locks for incoming traffic

 In they come

Including this little guy

Closing the gates when loaded

And opening again 6.4 metres lower

This steel structure looks like a bridge but it is actually a dam. It is called the Emergency Swing Dam since it was designed to swing out over the canal in an emergency and greatly slow the flow of water. Only nine emergency swing dams were constructed world-wide and today, this is the only one remaining, as well as the only one ever put to the test under emergency conditions, which happened in 1909.

On the north shore of the St. Marys River are several islands, linked by the locks and bridges, with beautiful walking trails.

Whitefish Island is preserved and protected by the Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways who hold a historical past with it and the surrounding area that dates back thousands of years.  In 1982 Whitefish Island was named a National Historic Site after the Ministry of Culture completed an archaeological study which fond more than 100,000 artifacts, unique flora and fauna and evidence of continuous habitation by the Anishnabe people.  In 1998 Whitefish Island was returned to the Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways - they are the custodians of this land and protect it for future generations.

There are two walking trails on the islands which take you to look-outs over the St. Marys River Rapids, the shallow waters between the islands that is home to a wide variety of wildlife, and underneath the 3.2km long International Bridge.

The St. Marys Rapids...with my feet in them too 

I waited a while but unfortunately other than the dam, no beaver sightings

A great way to end my time in Sault Ste. Marie - with a dinner prepared by my Aunt and Uncle, both of whom have wonderful culinary skills!  Salmon barbequed on a cedar plank and lots of fresh vegetables.  Don't worry - there was wine too (don't know why it didn't make it into the photo).  And for breakfast the next day, homemade croissants with butter and homemade lilac jelly!  How lucky am I?!?!

Finally time to head for home, and the fastest, most direct way of doing that was through Michigan, along I-75.  Only one really interesting thing to stop at along the way, and that is the Mackinac Bridge.
The bridge opened in November 1957, connecting two peninsulas linked for decades by ferries.  A year later, the bridge was formally dedicated as the "world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages", allowing a superlative comparison to the Golden Gate Bridge, which had a longer center span between towers, and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which had an anchorage in the middle. It remains the longest suspension bridge with two towers between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere.  Much longer anchorage-to-anchorage spans have been built in the Eastern hemisphere, but the long leadups to the anchorages on the Mackinac make its total shoreline-to-shoreline length of 8 kms, longer than the others.  The length of the bridge's main span is 1158 m, which makes it the third-longest suspension span in the United States and 17th longest suspension span worldwide.  It is also one of the world's longest bridges overall. 

Looking out over Lake Michigan

Over the bridge and on my home, down to the bottom of Lake Huron, crossing the border, and home. A great trip!