Along the St. Mary's River, a portion of the town of Sault Ste. Marie is located on an island created in 1885 when a canal was dug to take water from the river for a hydroelectric milling plant.
Today we visited three tourist attractions on this section of the town and the river.
First was the Valley Camp Museum Ship. In its 50 years of service this ship logged 3 million miles of Great Lakes travel, and carried 16 million tons of cargo. Retired in 1966 because it couldn't compete with newer, bigger, faster ships, it now houses 100 exhibits of maritime history, shipwrecks, lighthouses and local history. All decks of the ship from wheel house to stern and top to bottom are open for viewing.
One display we found interesting shows the little Valley Camp next to the big lakers. 6th to the right is the Indiana Harbor, a ship we first encountered in Two Harbors, MN. (see Backyard Exploring blog).
Across the street we visited the Tower Of History. In the basement is a small local history museum, but the main attraction is the view from four different level platforms.
From the highest--221'--we could see part of the canal flowing under the bridge in the distance.
Along the river we saw the Soo locks, the rapids that prompted the locks construction, the International Bridge, and part of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
The Valley Camp
Part of the canal, and at the far end on the left is our rv park (about 2 miles away).
Our last stop was the Soo Locks. We were in time to see a small boat exit one lock, then turned our attention to theadjacent lock. We were surprised to see the Indiana Harbor again!
We watched another ship coming in then were out of time on our parking meter.
On the way home we saw a sign for hand dipped ice cream. As with our last ice cream stop, there was no plain chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry. Foiled again.
No plans for tomorrow.
Louise and Duane
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