9th & 10th July...Sault Ste Marie.....St Ignace & Lake Huron Drive....

We had a day at home yesterday mainly to book next campsites as prime holiday time but also heavy rain for most of the day and thunder storms...
We are headed 60 miles north to the Soo Locks at Sault Ste Marie on the St Mary's River which is the border between the USA and Canada....
The Elijah B Allen House was built around 1822 and is the 2nd oldest house in Sault Ste marie...it is one of a few houses to survive the big fire of 1896 that devastated most of the historic waterfront...

Although altered and renovated over the years this was the home of  Charles T Harvey during the 1850's while he supervised the building of the canal and locks.....

"Oh Canada" ......

The Chippewa County Court House...

The Wolf of Rome....a replica of the statue of Romulus and Remus...
A gift from Chase S Osborn in 1909, he was struck by the similarities between this legend and the local Chippewa legend of a crane saving 2 brothers from their wicked mother..... 

The Crane of The Sault.....boys and crane and commissioned by Mrs Stella Osborn in memory of her husband...

And to the locks....a set of 4 parallel locks situated on The St Marys River to bypass the rapids which fall 21 feet from lake Superior to Lake Huron...
The first lock was completed in 1895 and rebuilt in 1968 to accommodate larger ships...front of the pic is one of the many tours boats to pass through the locks with a Canadian tanker in the lock behind...both going from Superior to Huron...it takes approximately 9 hours for a freighter to pass through the St Marys River including the locks ...

The tour boat waiting for the waters to descend...we had a good chat with the lock information guy, they often have freighters queued for hours as they back up to get through the locks...

Locks around the world work much the same as 200 years ago but interesting even to Yorkieman who has been through the Panama Canal 15 times...

Over 22 million gallons of water move through the locks every time a ship is raised or lowered....

Among the busiest lock system in the world an average 8o billion tons of cargo moves through the locks every year...mainly iron ore and coal....the locks are closed from mid January to the end of March when ice shuts down shipping on the Great Lakes....the canal and locks are owned and maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers who provide free passage !!

And back to St Ignace and another view of The Mackinac Bridge...
When we got home we met our neighbours such a sweet old couple who have been married 62 years, he proposed the year they started building the bridge, they had their honeymoon on Mackinac Island and return every few years.....

Sunday 10th July...
Camp Harris at Lakeshore Park Campground...

Our view this morning....

Today St Ignace harbour and coastal drive...
Playing on the water....

St Ignace Lighthouse....

This is one of the 3 ferry companies to Mackinac Island,  we thought as first it was a water powered engine but seems it's all for show !!!

The things I get Yorkieman to do :) .....life sized sundial and it was spot on !!

Part of St Ignace Harbour from the boardwalk....

The dark debris is actually bark.....from the 1870's to mid 1900's the lumber business was huge in Northern Michigan with the bay being used as a gathering place for the logs prior to the processing in the saw mills that lined the bay....the logs were chained together in booms, the wave action caused the bark to break off and sink to the bottom of the bay where it continues to wash ashore...

The scenic drive around Lake Huron was less than scenic of the lake but nice trees and we found a pretty little village/harbour, Hessel for our lunch time sandwich...the towns in Michigan are called villages maybe due to European influence which is evident in many areas...
The song for today is All Summer Long (Kid Rock)
More posts soon....
The Singing Campers....