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THE ST. MARY’S FALLS CANAL The Soo Locks The St. Mary’s Rapids is about one quarter of a mile wide and three-quarters of a mile long. The fall of water ranges from 18 to 24 feet with the varying stages of water. The first canal was built on the Canadian side of the river by the Northwest Fur Co. in 1797-98. The lock was 38 feet long, 8 feet 9 inches wide, with a lift of 9 feet. The lock, excepting its timber floor and miter sills, was des- troyed in 1814 by United States troops from Mackinac Island under the com- mand of Major Holmes. The first ship canal known as the State Canal, was built on the American side of the river in 1853 to 1855; some 750,000 acres of land in Michigan having been granted by the United States Congress for the con- struction thereof, The canal was 1'/\, miles long, 64 feet wide at the bottom, and 100 feet at the water surface. There were two tandem locks of masonry, each 350 feet long by 70 feet wide, with a lift of about 9 feet. The depth in the canal was about 13 feet and in the locks about 111/: feet at the stage of water then prevailing, The locks were destroyed in 1888 by excavators for the present Poe Lock. The Locks and Canals The MacArthur Lock, 800 feet long between inner gates, 80 feet wide, and having 31.0 feet of water on the miter sills at present low-water datum, was built by the United States in the years 1942 to 1943 and opened to traffic July 11, 1943 The Poe Lock is 1200 feet long, 105 feet wide, 32 feet over the sill. It was built by the United States government in the years 1961 to 1968. It was formally dedicated June 23, 1969. The Davis Lock, 1,350 feet long between inner gates, 80 feet wide, and originally having 24 feet of water on the miter sills (23.1 feet at present low-water datum), was built by the United States in the years 1908 to 1914, and opened to traffic October 21 of the latter year. The Sabin Lock, of the same dimensions as the Davis Lock, was built by the United States in the years 1913 to 1919 and opened to traffic Sept. 18, 1919. The present low-water planes are 601.1 feet, at the head, and 579.4 feet at the foot of the locks, above mean tide at New York, levels of 1935. All traffic, through both the United States locks and the Canadian lock, is passed free of tolls in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Ontario. As many as 600 different vessels pass through these locks in a year, varying in size from small non-freight carrying vessels to large vessels carrying more than 60,000 tons of freight in a single cargo